BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The race for Mountain View City Council has incumbents, school board members, community organizers and council members hoping to return.
Nine candidates are running for four seats, at the same time the city is asking voters to approve a 1.5% tax on property sales over $6 million.
The city wants to build a new police station, and residents are asking for more parks.
The incumbents — Mayor Pat Showalter and Councilwoman Emily Ann Ramos — are touting their housing accomplishments, which led to the state designating Mountain View as Santa Clara County’s first “pro-housing city” in February.
Showalter, 72, is running for her third term. She’s lived in Mountain View for 40 years and spent nine years on the Environmental Planning Commission. She worked as a civil engineer for Valley Water until retiring in 2017.
Showalter said she’s permitted 4,000 units on council, including 651 affordable homes.
Showalter supports creating a community land trust to buy properties for low-income families.
“My political efforts have always focused on increasing our housing supply and protecting our environment,” Showalter said on her website. Ramos, 38, was appointed to council from the Rental Housing Committee a year and a half ago. She works for the nonprofit SV@Home as a preservation and protection associate.
Ramos said she wants to create more financial assistance programs for low-income renters and to streamline the process for building new housing. She’s also interested in helping nonprofits buy homes.
Ramos and Showalter are both endorsed by Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, state Sen. Josh Becker, Assemblyman Marc Berman, Assemblyman Evan Low and the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.
Chris Clark, a member of the city’s Environmental Planning Commission, is hoping to return to council after an eight-year stint from 2013 to 2021. He was the city’s youngest ever mayor in 2014. Clark, 41, said his accomplishments include doubling Mountain View’s affordable housing supply with apartments for teachers and first responders, opening nearly a dozen new parks, fighting for Caltrain electrification and raising the city’s minimum wage.
Clark is endorsed by the city’s firefighters union, police union, the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, Simitian, Berman, Becker and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.
John McAlister, 71, is the only business owner in the race, running a Baskin Robbins for over 20 years at 1249 W. El Camino Real McAlister was on council at the same time as Clark, and he went on to join the city’s Performing Arts Committee. Before council, McAlister was on the Environmental Planning Commission.
McAlister was named as the Chamber of Commerce’s “business owner of the year” this year.
He said he wants to establish a city-sponsored incubator for local startups and to create a small business advisory board, giving small business owners a voice in city policies.
McAlister is endorsed by outgoing Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak and Councilwoman Margaret Abe-Koga.
Nicholas Hargis, 27, is the youngest candidate in the race. He’s a field representative for Eshoo who graduated from Saint Francis High School and moved to California Street in 2021.
Hargis said he wants to ban vapes, to stop using police dogs for force and to create a low-income laundry assistance program with local laundromats and the nonprofit Community Service Agency.
Hargis said the city should ask the private sector how AI can help streamline the city’s planning and permitting processes.
Hargis is endorsed by Los Altos Vice Mayor Pete Dailey and Mountain View Whisman school board member Bill Lambert.
Erik Poicon, 32, is a community outreach specialist for the Santa Clara County Library District and a member of the city’s Human Relations Commission. He’s been an advocate for immigrants and homeless residents, working for the 2020 Census and the Community Service Agency.
“My experiences range from being homeless, to receiving rental and food assistance, to providing services for our community’s most vulnerable member,” Poicon said on his website.
Poicon said he wants to “continue the amazing work the council has done” around housing and transportation for pedestrians and cyclists. Poicon is endorsed by former Mayor Sally Lieber, former State Controller Betty Yee, seven unions and four out of five members of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
IdaRose Sylvester, 54, is a nonprofit leader, business owner and member of the city’s Human Relations Commission.
Sylvester said her community work started in her neighborhood, Varsity Park, where she created a Halloween event that now delights thousands.
Sylvester started a nonprofit at the beginning of the pandemic called Appetite for Good that fed hundreds of families while saving dozens of restaurants, she said.
On the city’s Environmental Sustainability Task Force, Sylvester wrote the top recommendation to create an Office of Sustainability, and then worked to actually create it, she said.
Sylvester is endorsed by Simitian, the Santa Clara County Democratic Party and four former mayors: Lieber, Lenny Siegel, Ronit Bryant and Ken Rosenberg.
Devon Conley, 44, is running from the board of the Mountain View Whisman School District, where Superintendent Ayinde Rudolph is on leave and the state is investigating potential fraud.
Conley said she wants to take her family-friendly approach to council, where she can expand access to childcare, improve bike safety and connect everyone to the internet. She also wants to have more recreation programs and celebrations.
Conley is a teacher and school board member.
Jose Gutierrez, 53, was on the board with Conley until 2020, when he ran for council and finished in sixth out of nine candidates. He’s now on the city’s Environmental Planning Commission that reviews development applications.
Gutierrez said on the commission, he’s pushed developers to improve bike safety and include green space in their projects. He’s proud of a teacher housing project under construction at 699 N. Shoreline Blvd. — a partnership between the city and the school district.
Gutierrez is endorsed by the police union, Los Altos School District board member Jessie Speiser and former Mountain View Whisman board member Christopher Chiang.