Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Archive photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Open Space: An avid outdoorsman, District 6 San Jose City Councilman Ken Yeager supported community efforts to create more park space. Hummingbird Park, a pocket park in North Willow Glen, was dedicated by the councilman in 2003.

Yeager Years

Councilman was appreciated for people-oriented style

By Mary Gottschalk and Alicia Upano

Ken Yeager will celebrate his 54th birthday on Dec. 12 by resigning from his San Jose City Council District 6 seat and taking the oath of office for his Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors District 4 seat.

After serving the San Jose neighbors of Willow Glen and Rose Garden since 2000, Yeager says, "It was much harder than I thought it would be, but it was also more rewarding."

His effort and commitment during the last six years has not gone unnoticed by the community.

"Everywhere I go, there's always somebody who comes up to thank me for work someone in my office has done or a vote I've made," he says. "It always brings a smile to my face."

Yeager has been at the forefront of nearly every Willow Glen issue during his time in office, governing the neighborhood during an important period of community transition. He helped work toward the revitalization of Lincoln Avenue. He worked to put measures into place that would mitigate traffic and noise. He was vocal on housing developments, trails and the airport curfew. Neighbors say while Yeager is fair, he's been an advocate for the community.

"He's a leader, and he's a doer. That's a rare combination because we have a lot of talkers," says Cara Finn, co-owner of Lincoln Avenue's The Grapevine. "I wouldn't even say he's a politician. He's a city and county activist who's willing to step into a political position."

Finn worked closely with Yeager when she was president of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association. Finn joined the new business association board after Yeager asked the former board to step down in 2001, when the association was on the verge of disbanding. Yeager says he worked to resurrect the association and the business district.

To Finn, Yeager was a leader with a sense of humor, someone who would listen to complaints and accept suggestions. The business association would have accomplished only a fraction of its goals without Yeager, Finn says. Improvements on Lincoln Avenue include pedestrian safety, sidewalk cleaning, increased parking and more businesses.

"He is almost single-handedly responsible for turning the business association around five years ago, and he went out on a limb to do that. It was a political mess," Finn says.

The Willow Glen Neighborhood Association also worked closely with Yeager's office. The association turned to Yeager for assistance in traffic calming measures throughout the neighborhood. It also needed his help on residential noise issues behind the former Beavers Bar and Grill, the Alano Club West and the American Legion Post 318.

To past neighborhood association president Helen Solinski, protesting airport curfew violators in 2005 was a memorable experience. Protestors dressed in sleepwear to hammer home the lack of sleep due to the late night flights.

"Ken and I, and my pajamas," Solinski says with a laugh. "I was really passionate about the airport. I was really proud of what Ken did, saying we're not going to put up with it."

Most of all, though, neighbors credit Yeager for being a conduit to the city. Solinski said Yeager and his staff, including aide Tony Filice, frequently organize meetings to help neighbors work through city bureaucracy.

Susan Espinoza thanks Yeager for salvaging the San Jose Fire Station No. 6 hose wagon. The city proposed its elimination in 2005 to help close a $58 million deficit. Yet Espinoza's son, Marcus, has a congenital heart problem that requires fast medical response from Station No. 6.

"I'm just an everyday person," Espinoza says. "He's the one who makes the decisions. If he didn't feel strongly about it, it wouldn't have ever happened, no matter how much I yelled and screamed."

Espinoza hopes the next councilman will have similar Willow Glen-oriented priorities.

Yeager and politics

Before Yeager began serving as District 6 councilman in 2000, he was hardly a political neophyte.

As a political science major at San José State University, where he still teaches one class each semester, Yeager worked on the campaigns and staffs of a variety of South Bay politicians. He served as a press relations aide in Washington, D.C., and later in San Jose for former congressman Don Edwards, and Susanne Wilson and Rod Diridon, during their county supervisor stints.

In 1984 Yeager and fellow SJSU professor Wiggsy Sivertsen formed the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, a political group that works to support gay and lesbian rights.

Now as Yeager prepares for the transition, he says the high points of his council tenure include chairing the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Ethics; the FAA approval of San Jose's airport curfew, giving the city authority to impose fines; and his service on the Caltrain board, where he is the current chairman.

On Dec. 2 he had one more moment in the spotlight before vacating his District 6 seat. Yeager was able to participate in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the upcoming renovation of the Willow Glen library.

While his legacy will include numerous successes, Yeager has also been on the losing side of issues. In 2003, he was the only council member who voted against the Tamien Place project. The project consists of two 11-story condominium towers at the corner of Lick and W. Alma avenues. In particular, Yeager was concerned about the potential increase in traffic, housing density, aesthetics and lack of open space.

Despite the defeat, North Willow Glen resident and community leader Harvey Darnell looks at the Tamien project as a learning experience for the neighborhood and Yeager.

"He was working with us on the Tamien project, and it taught us a lot about what it took to work with all the powers that be," Darnell says.

Low points of his time on the council, Yeager says, were having to censor Mayor Ron Gonzales, asking Gonzales to resign and the Terry Gregory scandal.

"One of the reasons I'm interested in government is I believe I can do a lot of good, and I want to build more trust between residents and city hall. Those ethics scandals really tore that trust down," Yeager says.

In terms of accomplishments, it's not surprising Yeager points to his work on the county trails.

Yeager says when he first arrived on the council, the issue of trails "had been totally ignored. Now there's a new commitment to construct more."

Parks advocate and Willow Glen resident Larry Ames praises Yeager for pushing the city to hire a trail program manager. "Before that, trails kind of fell in the cracks in the parks system," Ames says.

A strong proponent of physical fitness, Yeager's red Subaru has a personalized license plate that reads "KEYRUNS" and he does run, 5 miles, four times a week.

He's also well known around city hall for his preference for taking the stairs rather than the elevator to reach his 18th floor office.

Yeager also spearheaded the move to require healthy food and drink options in San Jose vending machines.

A healthy lifestyle also extended directly into the District 6 neighborhoods.

Yeager is equally pleased with the dedication of new parks in his district, including Hummingbird, Fuller, River Glen, Buena Vista, Cahill and O'Connor parks.

Still, he says, "I wish we'd been able to acquire more parkland. District 6 is parkland-deficient. Land is so expensive, we can't purchase much.

"We haven't been able to purchase the abandoned Willow Glen railroad spur. We've allocated the money, but we haven't reached an agreement with Union Pacific on a purchase price."

Part of the problem, he says, is that many areas in District 6, particularly in the Rose Garden and Willow Glen, are older neighborhoods developed before the city required inclusion of parklands.

"We hope to create a large regional park around the old Del Monte cannery site," he says.

A disappointment, he says, has been his lack of success in finding a suitable location for a dog park in District 6, something he knows many constituents want.

Terming his efforts as "frustrating," Yeager says it might be possible to incorporate a dog park into the Del Monte park plan.

But while dog parks are stalled, his campaign to address illegal tree removals is standing tall.

The city approved a revised illegal tree removal ordinance in June. The amended ordinance strengthened the laws, more than doubling the fines for homeowners and tree-removal companies that illegally cut down a tree. It now provides steep fines of up to $6,000 for repeat offenders.

Next phase

As Yeager prepares to move from a city to a county office and see his constituency base rise from 90,000 to more than 300,000, it's clear he's been giving it a lot of thought.

"I want a better relationship between the cities of San Jose, Campbell and Santa Clara and the county," he says. "We need to work on joint projects and increase cooperation."

Signaling his intention, Yeager has asked San Jose Mayor-elect Chuck Reed to introduce him at his swearing in ceremony.

"I hope that sends a signal that the two governments will have better communication," he says.

Yeager has also asked Catherine Gallagher, the incoming presiding judge for Santa Clara County Superior Court and the first woman to hold that post, to swear him in.

Looking forward, Yeager points out about half his city council district is within the boundaries of his new supervisorial district.

"I'll also be representing the unincorporated areas within the geographical boundaries of District 6, such as parts of Cambrian and the Burbank neighborhood," he says.

As supervisor his priorities will include deciding what to do with the county fairgrounds, providing support for foster children and housing for the homeless, as well as boosting voter turnout.

Under current term limit laws, Yeager can serve up to three four-year terms as a county supervisor.

Yeager says that's his focus, and he won't speculate on his political plans beyond that.

"I've never lacked for energy," Yeager says. "I'd love to go back to teaching, and I'd like to write some books on what it's like to be in office and about others who have served.

"I believe I leave the district in better shape than when I was first elected, which is something I wanted to achieve.

"It's a great job and it has been a wonderful six years. I'm fortunate I can continue in public service."