Willow Glen Resident
News
District 6 vacancy should not affect services for constituents
By Eli Segall
Starting in December, District 6 will be without a city council member for three months. Fortunately, constituent services won't skip a beat.
San Jose City Councilman Ken Yeager was elected in June to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and will be sworn into his new post on Dec 12. His seat on the council, however, will remain vacant until March 6, when a runoff election is held in District 6. None of the candidates earned enough votes for outright victory in the Nov. 7 general election. The top vote-getters were Pierluigi Oliverio and Steve Tedesco, with third-place finisher Clark Williams just 49 votes behind.
To ensure a smooth transition, on Nov. 21 the city council unanimously approved the hiring of additional staff to help with constituent services.
"My hope is that we don't skip a beat," said Yeager, who will help select the interim staff. "Constituent services have always been my top priority, and I very much want that to continue in my absence."
When Yeager leaves the council, chief of staff John Mills and council aide Laura Jones will go with him. Aide Tony Filice will stay in the office through Dec. 31 before joining Yeager, and aide Megan Doyle will move into the role of District 6 chief of staff until the runoff.
Doyle, Filice and their new co-workers will report to the mayor's office until a new council member is elected.
The pending three-month gap has not alarmed district residents, who remain confident in the city's ability to pick up the slack.
"I'm personally not that worried," said Joe Bentley, president of the Shasta-Hanchett Park Neighborhood Association. "We know the city staff well, and we've worked with them directly on a number of issues. Plus, it's only three months."
The city will not appoint an interim voting member for the transition period, leaving District 6 without a vote on any city council agenda items until March.
Linda Pedersen of Willow Glen was also not concerned about lack of representation in council chambers.
"I really don't think the council will try to ram anything through that's detrimental to the neighborhood," Pedersen said.
Mayor-elect Chuck Reed said there's a possibility of postponing agenda items directly related to the district until it has a voting member.
Yeager concurred with Pedersen's assessment.
"I can't imagine an issue that would be so critical that they'd have to have a vote before March 6," Yeager said.
During the transition, District 6 staff will focus on constituent problems and requests and finishing projects Yeager started, such as the Hester Park renovations.
"We're just bringing the ship into port and wrapping things up," Doyle said. "We'll remain strong advocates in this sort of tricky time."
Transitions with missing council members are not new to San Jose. When Councilman Terry Gregory resigned in January 2005 amid corruption charges, his successor, Madison Nguyen, was not elected until September of that year.
Reed himself is vacating city council District 4, which could have an even longer transition gap than District 6. Reed's North San Jose district will have a primary vote March 6 and, if need be, a general election June 5.
