League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA November 8, 2011 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of Sunnyvale; Seat 6

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on , , Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council? Answer from Steve Hoffman: Having integrity is far more important than anything else. I am not accepting any contributions from any group or even individual, so you can be assured that I will be representing only the best interest of Sunnyvale residents. As CEO of a successful medical device manufacturing corporation here in Sunnyvale, that exports its product around the world, I have years of successful experience managing and working with employees, negotiating contracts, interacting with lawyers, accountants, consultants, clients, vendors, employees, service providers, city, county, state, and federal government agencies. And many more. As a former tenant and current residential property owner in Sunnyvale, with long-term tenants (>20 yrs), I understand the balance needed for mutually beneficial tenant/landlord relationships. As the owner of a fully occupied multi-tenant commercial property in Sunnyvale, I know how to attract businesses to Sunnyvale and reduce commercial vacancies. 2. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them? Answer from Steve Hoffman: The two main issues for which I am running for Sunnyvale City Council are: 1) The City's leadership's social disconnect from us the residents. Seems like they don't understand who is working for who. 2) The City's current structural deficit based financing that leads to bankruptcy. At the root of both these issues is how council members get elected. On the one hand, public employee bargaining groups contribute and help candidates get elected, which is rewarded with favorable compensation contracts for the member employees. On the other hand, developers contribute heavily to help candidates get elected, which is rewarded with permits for multi-million dollar contracts. For more information on this, please visit http://www.SpecialInterestWatch.com 3. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole with groups’ interests? Answer from Steve Hoffman: The interest of the City as a whole comes first to everything. When these interests are contrary to a few individual residents or even a small neighborhood, then good faith communications and negotiations will pursue in order to bring about a real happy resolution. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.