Returned to Office: Mayor Stan Bogosian
Voters return Bogosian, Waltonsmith to council
By Kara Chalmers
In a tight race, incumbent Saratoga City Council candidates Ann Waltonsmith and Mayor Stan Bogosian were returned to the council over newcomer Chuck Page, the city's planning commission chairman.
Bogosian, with a vote count of 6,675, took 35.1 percent of the vote, while Waltonsmith, with 6,506 votes, took 34.2 percent. Page secured 5,818 votes, which is 30.6 percent of the total.
Bogosian and Waltonsmith reported they were extremely pleased with the passage of Measure G, a moratorium on residential development in the city's commercial zones that will expire in March 2002, which 73.6 percent of people who voted on the measure supported. Measure G-which Bogosian and Waltonsmith supported in their campaigns and which Page opposed-won 8,841 "yes" votes out of a total of 12,007 votes.
Stan Bogosian was elected to the council in 1996 and the council chose him as mayor last December. The council appointed Waltonsmith in September 1999, to replace Jim Shaw, who died in office.
Waltonsmith and Bogosian, who ran on the same ticket, say they see their election and the passage of Measure G as a strong vote of support for the slow, planned growth policies that the current council has pursued. They say Measure G will allow the council time to get to work on revitalizing the city's retail and commercial areas like the Gateway and Village.
"The potential is the highest in decades to get something done," Bogosian said.
The two winning candidates also say they will continue to pursue finding playfields for the city to use, revitalizing the Heritage Orchard, and rebuilding the community and senior centers. Waltonsmith mentioned establishing a nonprofit foundation to raise money for the new centers, or possibly funding the rebuild with a bond measure. She said also that noise abatement on Highway 85, traffic calming, especially around schools, below-market-rate housing for people in the community like teachers and seniors, voluntary busing to schools and the possibility of a West Valley College stadium were issues on which the council will focus.
Voter Mandate: Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith
In addition, as a council member who has now been elected, rather than appointed, Waltonsmith said she will have a chance to work on issues that are close to her heart, such as supporting local artists and securing more covered bus stops in the city.
"Before I was making sure I worked with the present council and supported it," Waltonsmith said. "Now I feel I can legitimately look forward to working on some of my own issues."
Page said it was too early to say whether he would try to be re-appointed to the planning commission when his term expires in April, or whether he would run for council again in the future. In terms of this race, Page said he only wished he started some of his campaigning earlier than he did and that he had challenged his opponents to a televised debate, so that more Saratogans could have seen how he stands on issues.
According to Page, the council race showed that a "regular guy" with no political ties could still get a high number of votes.
"I ran a grass-roots campaign; I did most everything myself and the results are phenomenal," Page said. "This is huge. These guys couldn't even get a simple majority."
According to Bogosian, he and Waltonsmith were confident they would prevail, as soon as the vote counts started coming in on election night. He noted that he and Waltonsmith were consistently leading in the polls and that he didn't feel it was a very close race. In fact, he said the party he and Waltonsmith attended at former council member Vic Monia's house broke up around 11:30 p.m. when "the trend was very well established." But he added that he sat in front of his computer screen until 2 a.m. the next morning, waiting for final results.
"I would characterize the campaign generally as a very clean campaign and, on my and Ann's end, very well run," Bogosian said. "All three of us kept it clean and kept personal attacks out of it." Bogosian added that four years ago, that wasn't the case.
"It reaffirmed what I already knew," Bogosian said of the campaign. "That it is gratifying to have good friends and competent volunteers that pitched in and made it happen ƒ I'm happy for myself and Ann. We have a lot of work ahead of us."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
