Candidate for
Council Member; City of Sunnyvale; Seat 3

Four years ago, you elected me to the Sunnyvale City Council, to see the city through the worst economic disaster to strike our country in eighty years. Sunnyvale faced a significant structural deficit, declining services, and a massive loss of revenue due to the economic downturn and state takeaways. Our roads, our trees, and our buildings were in bad shape, our offices were vacant, unemployment was near 10%, and many of us had homes that were under water or in foreclosure.

But look at what we accomplished in just the past four years:

• We solved our structural budget deficit and increased our cash reserves to over $88 million.
• We implemented pension reform with every single bargaining unit, and we did so without the disastrous turmoil that cities like San Jose face.
• We performed massive amounts of road work and increased our road quality from its previous rating of "poor" to a current rating of "very good".
• We restored tree maintenance to levels not seen in a decade.
• We built the first new park in twenty years - Swegles Park. And we're breaking ground on a second new park, Seven Seas Park in a few weeks.
• We completed the structural renovation of two of our four structurally deficient bridges, and we've now started work to renovate the remaining two.
• We maintained the City's Aaa credit rating, one of only eight cities in California to have such a rating.
• We maintained services and avoided layoffs or furloughs when every other city in the county had to engage in them.
• Sunnyvale unemployment dropped from near 10% to 5.4%.
• Sunnyvale's office space vacancies dropped from near 30% to 6%.
• We created jobs, filled offices, restored and increased home values, and improved city services.

But there's more to do. Our tremendous success has produced traffic, development, and housing issues that need to be resolved, and we need to take a good look at where we want to go as a city. Crime has spiked state-wide, and Sunnyvale hasn't been spared the effects of the statewide early prisoner release and realignment efforts. We need to increase our Public Safety staffing. And most important, we must replace our retiring City Manager, the single most important task that the next Council will face.

With your support, I'll work hard to serve you well, and to make our city the best that it can be.

For more information, please visit my web site, www.jimforcouncil.com.