Darab Ghaffary
Age: 51
Occupation: Civil engineer
and sales manager

In 2003, Mayor Dean Chu and Councilman Otto Lee became the first Asian-American elected officials in Sunnyvale, and 2005 could hold a similar milestone.

Iranian-born Darab Ghaffary is in the running for Seat 2. If elected, he would be the first Iranian to hold public office in Sunnyvale and the third to hold public office in the United States.

But public service is no stranger to Ghaffary and his family. His great-grandfather was a delegate from Iran to the League of Nations, and his grandfather was an Iranian diplomat.

Ghaffary has been chairman of the board for Building Code Appeals, a body that meets when needed in the city of Sunnyvale. Although they've only had one meeting in the past three years, Ghaffary said the experience he gained there, as well as in his work as a civil engineer, has prepared him for the city council.

"Serving on that board helped me learn first-hand how to work with residents and city staff," he says. But Ghaffary has more experience with civic processes than just serving on a board.

"What I bring to the table is that I'm a licensed civil engineer, and I've been working on civil engineering in our wonderful state of California for many years," Ghaffary said.

Ghaffary prides himself on being a "citizen representative, not a politician." While he--like all the candidates in this race--feels the downtown revitalization needs to be finished, he wants to make sure it doesn't hurt Sunnyvale's residents.

"We need to find a balance between what the developer is asking for and what the citizens are asking for," he says.

He also wants to see a great focus on education, specifically on the relationship between the city and the Santa Clara Unified School District.

The SCUSD has received city attention over the past two years for hosting the San Jose SaberCats' practice tent and their concerns over the future use of the Peterson Middle School fields.

One way he would like to see the district--and all schools in Sunnyvale--supported is through affordable housing for teachers to encourage the best educators to relocate to Sunnyvale.

Regarding the city budget, Ghaffary said that the city is doing fine, because the deficit of almost $11 million is less than five percent of the total budget. He supports the ballot initiatives to raise the transit occupancy tax and the business license fee, and feels that any other tax increases should be put to similar votes.

For more information on Darab Ghaffary, visit www.ghaffary.com.

Christopher Moylan
Age 48
Occupation: Stanford chemistry professor

In 2003, three of the four council members who were elected had served on the Sunnyvale Planning Commission, leading many to say that the commission was the steppingstone to the council.

But this year, only one new candidate is a former planning commissioner. Christopher Moylan has spent five years on the commission and recently finished this year as chairman.

Moylan, 48, a chemistry professor at Stanford University, has lived in Sunnyvale for six years, but in that time has gathered an extensive résumé of community involvement.

He has been a little league coach since 2003, and a Sunnyvale Neighborhoods Activity Prepare captain since 2002. He is also a 2001 Leadership Sunnyvale graduate.

It's all of those experiences that Moylan says make him the best person to tackle the challenges of the next four years, including the completion of the downtown, revitalization of the economy and rebirth of a Sunnyvale identity.

"I'm the only candidate who's served on bodies that have actually addressed these issues," Moylan said. "It's all a very complicated process, and not something that you can just walk in off the street and handle."

Moylan said he is especially concerned about the move towards high-density housing in Sunnyvale, a trend he does not want to see continue. He says that density will be a key issue that the next city council will have to deal with, something the planning commission has prepared him for.

"It's absolutely a qualification for the city council job, especially at a time like this when the biggest issue in town is land use," he says. "I've been working on this stuff for 5 years now. I'm up to speed on the issues, I'm educated on them, and I'd like to be at the table working on them."

Another concern of Moylan's is an emphasis on Sunnyvale's cultural offerings such as the Lace Museum, the Sunnyvale Arts Club and the historical buildings in town. If those elements were emphasized downtown, Moylan said it would bring new life to the area.

"I would love to see us consolidate all these into one building, and have the Sunnyvale Museum that you can't see anywhere else," he says."

But Moylan's self-described "first love" is transportation. He chaired the Santa Clara County Transportation Committee from 1993 to 1994, and has served on a number of transit-related bodies. He wants to see more local use of public transportation, with a greater emphasis on moving workers around the South Bay, rather than between San Jose and San Francisco.

For more information on Christopher Moylan, visit www.moylanforcitycouncil.com.

Pete Richards
Age: 63
Occupation: Business owner

Former Housing and Human Services Commissioner Pete Richards has traveled the world, and it brought him to Sunnyvale, where he plans to retire and hopes to serve in the city council's second seat.

Richards, 63, was born in England, and moved to Canada before moving to Southern California in the early 1960s. He ended up in Watts, just in time to be working on a production line when the 1965 race riots broke out.

For 21 years, Richards has lived and worked in Sunnyvale. He raised three children and has two grandchildren in Sunnyvale schools. He owns Richards Environmental Products, a small manufacturing company in town.

Richards spent four years on the Housing and Human Services Commission and realized that his passion was civic service to Sunnyvale.

He said there are two main focuses of his service, housing and the economy.

"We understand growth, and we want growth, but we don't want tall buildings where people are able to look down into our living rooms," Richards said.

He said this could come up with the downtown project because of the demand for housing in Sunnyvale. He said he would strictly enforce zoning restrictions, to make sure that high buildings do not join the already high-density area around Mathilda Avenue and El Camino Real.

For Sunnyvale's economic future, Richards said the city--needs to promote itself to companies looking for space because it must compete against overseas outsourcing.

"Sunnyvale is not only a beautiful place to live, it's a beautiful place to do business, but we need to market and sell that," he says.

Marketing and business promotion is nothing new to this small business owner, who managed to survive the economic downturn. He had to shrink his staff, but he managed to keep going.

"The city needs good sound common sense, and I have over 20 years of experience running my own business. I'm a small business owner, so I know how to talk to my customers, and that relationship is no different than the city council and the residents of Sunnyvale," he said.

For more information, visit www.peterichards.com.