In fact, Kline, who served for four years on the city of Santa Clara's planning commission, had originally considered pursuing an appointment to Saratoga's planning commission. He started asking local leaders for their opinions on the idea but was consistently encouraged to run for the council, he said, because of his experience in Santa Clara.

"I think that I do have skills that the community needs," he said. "Sometimes it's refreshing to have someone new come in."

Two and a half years ago, he and his family moved to a house they built in Saratoga, where his wife hails from. His vision for Saratoga, he said, is "controlled growth."

"I support Measure G," Kline said of the law passed by Saratoga voters in 1996 that maintains current residential and open space land-use designations unless a change is approved by a citizen vote. "It will help keep Saratoga rural, pretty much the way it is. People want a country feel in this town."

He would like to see Saratoga, "the city that will be impacted the most," have the most say about any future development at the Mountain Winery, most of which is located in unincorporated areas.

"That has to continue to be low density," he said. "Saratoga has to be the city to control the use permit up there."

He is also opposed to a stadium at West Valley College, for development reasons if nothing else—"From a planning point of view, a stadium at West Valley doesn't make any sense."

Kline said he believes the Saratoga Fire District will likely not have received approval to move forward with its fire station rebuild project by the time he would take office and expects to contribute to a final design acceptable to everyone.

"I did not like the original plan for the fire station," he said. "It was not safe; it was not appealing. I couldn't support that. The set of new plans that just came out look much, much better. But there are still issues with it."

In that, as in other decisions affecting the city, Kline said the best course is to actively include the public in discussions early on.

"It's better to bring in the community," he said. "It takes a lot longer, but the role of government is patience, patience, patience."

One example of that, he said, is the city's process to improve the Gateway area, particularly to generate development guidelines there. He said it's important that the immediate community be involved in the development of the vision for the area.

Kline said the current council has been more approachable and welcoming of the public than past councils. But he said it could do more to encourage participation by holding meetings in less intimidating locations than the city's theater, locating forums about issues in the areas affected by them and having meetings at more appropriate times.

It's also important, he said, that the government's actions are visible.

"Transparency of government is really critical," Kline said. "Nothing is hidden from the public as far as decision-making is concerned. That means lots of meetings, as soon as possible, as many as possible, as frequently as possible."

He said, though, that sometimes the council does have to move quickly, as in the city's recent purchase of the North Campus Facility. He said he didn't know how he would've voted on that issue because he wasn't on the council at the time, but that he expects the site will be good for Saratoga in the future.

"I think in the long term people are going to be thankful they bought it," he said. "I think it was an incredibly courageous decision. In buying real estate, timing is everything."

He said he believes the city and the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce can work better together by focusing on different aspects of building Saratoga's business. The city should provide the infrastructure to make areas, particularly the Village, better for the businesses they already have, while the Chamber should act as a "marketing firm," he said.

"The Village is working; let's not break it," he said. "The city's economic development coordinator should be working with the Chamber very, very closely."