BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Mountain View Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga and Alex Nunez, who in part ran the campaign for two recent ballot measures, announced today (June 15) that they are running for city council.
Nunez was the co-chair for in the campaign against Measure D, which appeared on the March ballot and would have changed the city’s rent control law to increase the amount landlords could raise the rent and the per-employee business tax measure that won in 2018. He is also on a handful of community groups and committees in the city, including Mountain View YIMBY.
Nunez says he is running because “the needs of many Mountain View residents have been largely left behind throughout our longtime housing crisis and especially now during our COVID-19 emergency. This has left many in our community feeling hopeless and powerless for their ability to ever recover and establish a better life for themselves or their families.”
Nunez also wants to expand and improve the city’s overnight parking program for RV dwellers, look for ways to increase the city’s revenue instead of making budget cuts during the forecasted recession and bring rent control to mobile home park residents.
Nunez so far has endorsements from former Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, Rental Housing Commissioner Emily Ramos and Mountain View-Whisman board member Tamara Wilson.
Abe-Koga was re-elected to the city council in 2016, after having served on the council from 2007 to 2015. Abe-Koga says that some of her recent accomplishments include spearheading the city’s rental assistance program that went to tenants who needed help to pay their rent amid the COVID-19 outbreak and the city’s small business loan program.
Abe-Koga says on her website that since she “has made the tough decisions in the past and will do again so if needed,” she is poised to help the city recover from the economic effects of COVID-19.
She also wants to bring a tiny home pilot program to the city, increase pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in town and revisit the regulations on downtown businesses.
Abe-Koga and Nunez are the two most recent contenders for the November election where four seats are up for grabs. Abe-Koga joins incumbent Lisa Matichak in seeking re-election while councilmen John McAlister and Chris Clark are termed out.
Also running are Mountain View-Whisman board member Jose Gutierrez and former Mayors Pat Showalter and Lenny Siegel.