By NORAH SHEPPARD-HUTCHINS
Daily Post Staff Writer
A former NFL player is running against three incumbents for a seat in San Carlos City Council in hopes to use his financial expertise to help the city.
Mark Iwanowski, 70, said he decided to run for council four days before the deadline, after his neighbors said he would be a good candidate because of his background in finance.
Iwanowski touted his fiscal knowledge in an interview with the Post, outlining his time as Chief Information Officer at Oracle, where he helped save over $1 billion by combining 95 regional data centers into one global center.
He wants to prevent tax increases, believing the city should cut waste before asking residents to pay more.
Cut the waste first
Iwanowski is against the half-cent sales tax that the council put on the November ballot.
San Carlos officials have the $6 million from the tax would support the city’s plans to improve downtown, road maintenance, parks and public safety for 14 years.
“There’s a way to live within the current budget and not … raise taxes,” Iwanowski said. “Affordability is one of the biggest issues everybody has, and if you raise their taxes, you’re making things less affordable for them.”
Besides his business experience, Iwanowski played for the New York Jets, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs.
He also volunteers as a mentor for veterans transitioning from the military to the business world.
Iwanowski said he finds financial transparency to be an issue in council that he hopes to help solve.
More accountability
Iwanowski said his biggest goal is to bring more common sense and accountability to council.
He will be running against Adam Rak, Pranita Venkatesh and Sara McDowell.
The Post intends to interview his opponents in coming weeks.
Rak and McDowell have been in San Carlos City Council since 2018, and are seeking a third term. Venkatesh was elected to council in 2022.
Good for him. Could he and/or someone like him please in Palo Alto??!!
We need oversight and accountability. We do not need more wasteful spending on useless fantasies like staff’s recent OSV plan based on no data, no community input and without any outreach to the residents and businesses on the 13 streets staff declared RV havens.
As the Post reported in May, the city wants $6M a year for its General Fund when its projected deficit is only $500K–$1M.
San Carlos voters are faced with multiple tax measures on this November ballot. It is getting really hard with these compounding taxes when family budgets are already strained by inflation.
Mark Iwanowski was CIO for Oracle Corporation and was instrumental in its decision to move its headquarters from California to Texas in 2020, to cut costs. As a company cost-cutter, how would he cut costs for San Carlos to prevent a tax increase? Who will he appoint to ensure someone loses their job, their salary, and their livelihood? We’ve heard all this before from the former reality TV show host inside the gilded Oval Office in Washington, DC.