The Cupertino Courier
News
Candidates vie for open seat on Cupertino city council
By Crystal Lu
Three candidates are in a race for an unscheduled vacancy on the Cupertino City Council. The vacancy was created Aug. 8 when former Vice Mayor Patrick Kwok, took a position with the Santa Clara Valley Water District's board of directors, representing District 5. The term for Kwok's replacement will end in 2009.
To fill the position, the city council unanimously decided on Aug. 21 to hold a special election, which is scheduled for Feb. 5.
Three candidates filed paperwork by the Nov. 9 deadline, including Mark Santoro, who is running again after his narrow defeat, coming in a close third in the Nov. 6 election for two council seats. The other two candidates, T.N. Ho and Chihua Wei, are first-timers.
T.N. Ho
T.N. Ho, 60, is from Taiwan. He and his family have lived in the South Bay since 1986, and they have been Cupertino residents for the past two years.
Ho says a major impetus for his campaign is the overpopulation of Cupertino's schools, a problem he has observed as a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education. Ho blames overbuilding for the glut of Cupertino students.
"Cupertino doesn't have the infrastructure to support high-density housing," he said.
To improve the city's infrastructure, Ho suggests a light rail system connecting to Mountain View to Campbell or downtown San Jose.
He advocates non-gas-powered mass transportation that will not pollute the air.
Ho believes the combination of his management experience in the private industry and community service would make him a wise council member.
Ho came to the United States in 1972 for graduate school at Southern Illinois University. He earned a master's degree in computer science in 1974 and stayed in the country to pursue a career in software engineering, which culminated in managing multiple contracted programs with the federal government as senior vice president of Mantech Systems from June 1997 to January 2003.
Ho established Min's International Trading Co. in March 2003 and has since managed its operation.
Ho has been elected four times to the Santa Clara County Board of Education since 1994. He was also on the academic advisory board of Academic and Vocational Charter School in 2004, and served on the advisory board of the nonprofit Friends of Children with Special Needs from 1998 to 2002.
Mark Santoro
Mark Santoro, 50, is an electrical engineer by trade. His experience building a home in Cupertino in 2001 taught him a lot about the city government and made him decide to run for the city council.
During his campaign for the November election, Santoro was the target of hit pieces that accused him of running only for the hillside zoning issue pertaining to his own property. In response to such criticism, Santoro clarifies that he is not pushing for less restrictive building codes but for a more open, more transparent government that works for the people.
"It always helps when people know what their government is up to," he said.
According to Santoro, he is running again because many people asked him to. Some of them said they didn't vote for him on Nov. 6 because they didn't think he had a chance, but they will in February.
If elected, Santoro would work with schools to solve traffic congestion, help create a downtown area and review condo-building projects with thorough planning in mind.
Santoro was born in Miami, Fla., and moved to California with his family at age 5.
A knee injury in high school forced Santoro from pole vaulting and football into more academic pursuits. Working nights for a local newspaper, he put himself through school.
With a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Santoro held design positions at several companies in the Bay Area, including Apple Computers, Inc. and Sun Microsystems. He started his own company in January 1995, and served as CEO until the sale of his company in December 2000. Since then, he has been a high-tech consultant.
Chihua Wei
Chihua Wei, 54, has lived in Cupertino for 24 years and is active in the community.
Wei and his wife Lihuei, both from Taiwan, founded the nonprofit Organization of Special Needs Families in 2002. Coping with their own son Jonathan's autism made them decide to help other families who have special needs children.
Wei is also a Cupertino block leader, and a volunteer at the Cupertino Senior Center, the American Youth Soccer League, the Cupertino HOOPS Basketball League and the Cupertino National Little League.
In the public sector, Wei has served on the Cupertino Housing Commission to help create below-market rate housing.
"My passion is to serve the community and to help anyone in need," said Wei, who came to the United States in 1979 as a graduate student studying electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The computer industry brought Wei to Silicon Valley, where he has worked for high-tech companies including Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems.
With years of senior management experience in the high-tech industry as well as legal training in the housing industry, Wei is confident of his leadership skills.
If elected, Wei would like to build a model city of community service by launching programs to train young adults to be volunteers.
Wei would also like to work on building a downtown Cupertino and more quality preschools in the city.
