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In what is shaping up to be a crowded race, José Gutiérrez has announced that he is planning to run for Mountain View City Council, citing a desire to make a positive difference in the community.
Gutiérrez joins eight other contenders who are looking to fill one of the four open seats that are up for grabs this November.
Gutiérrez, a litigation legal specialist, has been active in local politics for nearly a decade, starting with his involvement in the Mountain View Whisman School District, where he was appointed in 2015 and later elected in 2016 to the board of trustees.
At the time, there was no representation on the board from the Castro School community, where a large percentage of the students were Latino and from low-income families. Gutiérrez, who had children at Mistral Elementary, filled the seat, helping the community address their concerns directly at the table.
For Gutiérrez, the bid for City Council is another opportunity to reflect the diversity of the city and make a difference on issues that hit close to home.
“I believe diversity is important. So, I think we should have more people of color running for office,” Gutiérrez said, adding that it sets a precedent for people from different backgrounds to be more involved in decision-making processes.
The desire to make a difference prompted Gutiérrez to run for City Council in 2020, a bid that was unsuccessful but did not dampen his enthusiasm to contribute to the wider community. In 2022, Gutiérrez was appointed to the Environmental Planning Commission and, since then, has been involved in some of the biggest issues impacting the city’s development.
Planning for housing growth was a top priority when Gutiérrez joined the commission. At the time, the city was in the midst of getting its housing element certified by the state, a lengthy and laborious process that involved a lot of community feedback. Gutiérrez chalked up the certification as a big win for Mountain View that had a lot of buy-in from the community.
But Gutiérrez also expressed disappointment with how other housing plans have panned out for the city, referring specifically to Google’s North Bayshore development. In a final version of its plans presented to the commission last year, Google removed 350 inclusionary affordable units and proposed to meet its affordable housing contribution through land dedication instead.
Gutiérrez was the only commissioner to vote against the development, citing his immense frustration with the removal of the affordable units as the reason for his dissenting vote.
“I thought, ‘Hey, all this time we’ve been working in good faith to try and come up with some housing alternatives for that part of the city.’ Google at the end backed out of that, and the plan was presented to us more from a take it or leave it perspective, which I was shocked,” he said.
As a campaign priority, Gutiérrez says he wants the city to negotiate with developers from a better position, with outside legal counsel to help the city get better deals.
Gutiérrez also is an advocate of strong partnerships, noting that there has been a breakdown in communication between the city and school district in recent years. If elected to council, Gutiérrez says he would help mend some of the tensions that have cropped up around issues like fencing, public access to school fields and tax revenue agreements.
“When we work together, we can do a lot of good things. And we’ve done them in the past,” Gutiérrez said, referring to the affordable housing development for teachers that is expected to be finished this year.
Gutiérrez also thinks more can be done to expand the city’s green spaces, and expressed dismay that a proposed tax measure on the November ballot does not specifically spell out parks as a funding priority.
It is important for everyone to have access to parks in their neighborhoods, Gutiérrez said, adding that listening to the concerns of the community is a big priority for him.
Gutiérrez also is committed to keeping conversations positive, even if there are differences in opinion, he said.
“As long as we can recognize that positive energy, I think we’re on a good path to discuss politics in a way where we’re not yelling at each other but trying to understand what the conversation is about,” Gutiérrez said.
“Because there’s enough stress already at the national level. We don’t need that here in Mountain View. We need to keep going because we’ve been pretty good so far, and we can continue that trend.”
Other candidates who have announced their intentions to run for City Council include incumbents Mayor Pat Showalter and City Council member Emily Ann Ramos as well as former City Council members John McAlister and Chris Clark, Mountain View Whisman trustee Devon Conley, Human Relations Commissioner Erik Poicon, and Nicholas Hargis, a congressional aide for U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo.
Human Relations Commissioner IdaRose Sylvester filed her intentions to run for City Council earlier this week.
Wishing all the candidates well, hope some of them will propose changes to the at large election used in Mountain View
With so many solid candidates, it will yet another election where winners will be elected to represent the whole city but by only a minority of the votes (typically 30% or less). Current system also leads to some neighborhoods (like Old Mountain View) being over-represented on council.
Unless ranked voting can fix the issue for at large election, district rank voting would seem fairer and would avoid neighborhood over representation.
Good to see so many candidates.
1. “Affordable Housing” should be explained to voters
a) “Affordable Housing” usually really means subsidized housing
b) It should be made clear from whose pocket money is being removed and to whose pocket it is going into during the subsidy process.
c) There are innocent people out there who think “Affordable Housing” means we magically reduced the price of housing by magically reducing the costs of land, material, labor, taxes, fees, building permit process, and regulatory compliance. This is typically not the case. So candidates throwing around the words “Affordable Housing” should be clear as to what they are proposing so the voting public understands what they are voting for. There is too much obfuscation that use Marketing/Sales grade rhetoric than make people feel good but really don’t communicate useful information.
c) Chris Clark seems to be the only candidate representing “Subsidized Housing” for what it really it. So Chris should get some credit for being clear and accurate in his representation.