Four years after finishing last in local council elections, Barnes is shaking things up in this campaign. This is the new, improved Barnes. And he firmly believes that he can win this time.

Barnes, 57, has been talking to Saratogans about a small, efficient government.

"I want to make Saratoga the most desirable place to live," said Barnes. He believes that local governments like Saratoga's suffer from over-regulation and wants to make things easier for citizens.

In forums and meetings in the last two months, Barnes has tried to project himself as an amiable and genial guy who can get things done, from revitalizing the Village to offering solutions for the current budget crunch in Saratoga. "We need a winter festival of some kind in the Village. We need more activity downtown. This is clearly a showpiece for the entire city," said Barnes.

Barnes was born in San Francisco and has lived in the South Bay for the last 25 years. His father worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad company and then later as an insurance salesman.

As a young man of 17, Barnes went off to serve in Vietnam in 1964. He was in the Navy, helping in communication, and hoped to be back home after a maximum of one year. But that was not to be. The war escalated and Barnes ended up serving in Vietnam for 3 ¹/2 years.

He still has vivid memories of his tour of duty. "I used to get body bag duty sometimes. You could be playing poker with someone the night before and then carrying him in a body bag the next day." He vividly remembers the battle of Chui Lai, the largest landing of Marines in the world since the Korean War. "Something like that stays with you for a very long time. I woke up in the morning and there were 300 ships waiting to land troops," said Barnes.

And yet, when Barnes came back to the United States, nobody wanted to talk about the war. It still hurts.

Barnes quickly went about building a new life. He worked days and went to college in the nights. He worked for the Wall Street Journal as an advertising clerk, and he pumped gas at gas stations. He worked hard.

"I tried to be upwardly mobile. I was trying to go somewhere," he said.

He joined flight school and learned to fly. Very soon he started an air freight company. It was successful and Barnes was on his way to becoming a successful businessman.

When Barnes first moved to the South Bay, he lived in Almaden. "The South Bay was much cheaper than other cities in the North Bay," he said. But then Almaden got crowded and overdeveloped.

That brought him to Saratoga, where Barnes and his wife, Sandy, have two adopted children, Michael and Lauryn.

"I had always aspired to live in Saratoga. I loved its rural character," he said.

Barnes, who moved into a new house last year in the city, said that dealing with the planning commission seemed as difficult as being in Vietnam. "I spent more time trying to get approval from the department than building my house," he said. "This has got to stop. Some people who work for the city have the wrong attitude."

Barnes said that most people who live in the city do not know what is going on with local government. He calls them Saratoga's silent majority. Barnes said that ever since he announced that he was running for the local elections, he has tried to reach out to this group.

"Most people do not want the new tax. They look around, they do not see a lot that needs fixing," said Barnes. "Why should they give more money?"

Barnes said that the city has an intelligent, professional population. "They will want to know why this new tax is needed."

He said that he was disappointed with the old cronyism that is part of Saratoga politics—a select group of people who want to control everything in the city. "I am trying to break the mold. But it is difficult. They are very powerful people," said Barnes.

Barnes said that he might have been a novice before, but no longer.

"There has been a lot of bloodletting; the current city council has stepped on a lot of people," he said.