Elected
Officials Current Position on BAREC and Their Contact Information
(5/30/03)
Our elected officials need to see
that there are many citizens who support BAREC. Write to them even
if it is a short note. Numbers count in politics. The most
important thing is that we get one more vote on the Santa Clara
City Council to Keep Some of the Land Zoned Agriculture. Try to
get these elected Officials to influence the Santa Clara City Council
in this direction.
CITY
THE TWO MOST LIKELY SANTA CLARA COUNCIL MEMBERS TO VOTE FOR AT LEAST
SOME LAND REMAINING ZONED AS AGRICULTURE ARE ALDYTH PARLE AND ROD
DIRIDON, JR . Aldyth Parle is the oldest council member and is focused
on Senior Housing. She should be happy because senior housing appears
to be happening on the property. It is possible she would vote supporting
some land remaining zoned agriculture. Creating a unique situation
for seniors (like activities for children, gardens and garden classes,
senior horticultural therapy programs, a historical museum) might
get her interested in saving some of the land. Council Member, Rod
Diridon, Jr., is the only council member who has run for a state
office (in 2002 he ran against Sally Lieber for State Assembly and
lost). Because of his regional interests and his father's notoriety
(San Jose train station is named after his father), he could be
influenced to vote to keep some of the land zoned in agriculture
instead of keeping it all in housing. He has also asked us about
sources of funding for open space for the property which we have
given him. He is an important swing vote and needs to hear from
us. In February the three city council members who voted in favour
of open space are Mayor Patricia Mahan, John McLemore, and Dominic
Caserta. The other four voted for housing with research as to possible
open space funding ideas (which has not yet been done satisfactorily
even after 3 ½ months). The two most unlikely candidates
to vote for open space are Jamie Matthews, who received campaign
money from the State’s consultants and a great deal of money
from developers outside the Valley, and Patrick Kolstad, the only
Republican council member. The City’s Ethical Code frowns
on council members receiving campaign money on issues they vote
on. For this reason, it is hoped that Jamie Matthews is forced to
recuse himself from voting on the BAREC issues. If he recuses himself,
the vote will be a tie.
STATE
The two that represent the BAREC property are Senator John Vasconcellos
and Assembly Member Rebecca Cohn. Neither have strong interests
in the property nor are they strong on environmental and land use
issues. Senator Vasconcellos has 1 ½ years left in his term.
Assembly Member Sally Leiber represents most of the City of Santa
Clara but not the exact location of the property. She feels there
is a problem because there are Assembly rules against going into
another elected official's district, in this case Rebecca Cohn’s
district. The strange shapes of the State Assembly and Senate Districts
makes this a very real problem for BAREC. However, if they really
see the value to their constitutients, they can do anything and
this is just an excuse. Sally Lieber has interests more in line
with the BAREC property (environmental, health, open space, sustainability,
non-traditional learners, and “enhancing local government’s
collaboration with our schools and community organizations”)
than Cohn and Vasconcellos. Assembly Member Joe Smitian and Senator
Byron Sher are both former Palo Alto mayors and represent northern
Santa Clara County. Senator Sher is a former Stanford law professor,
Chairman of the Environmental Quality Committee with interests in
natural areas and not agriculture and urban ecology. He is on the
Budget Review Committee. He will be termed out in 1 ½ years
and is concentrating on the Valley’s linear creek trails and
the Salt Marshes. Assemblyman Smitian is currently the most interested.
His interests, more than any other elected official, are aligned
with the BAREC property. He has degrees in law and city planning,
was School Board President, Santa Clara County Supervisor, is on
the Budget Subcommitte for Education Finance, and received UC’s
2002 Legislator of the Year award. He will be running for the Senate
seat of Senator Sher. We will be fortunate to have him help us.
Rebecca Cohn and former Assembly Member Elaine Alquist will be running
for Vasconcellos’ Senate. Alquist followed Vasconcellos when
he was termed out of his Assembly seat and, therefore, is probably
aligned with Vasconcellos to obtain his endorsement.. She was on
the Cupertino School Board so has strong interests in education.
She was Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Ageing and also the
Technology Information Committee.
FEDERAL
U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren and U. S. Representative Mike Honda
represent the region on the federal level. Both are on the Science
Committee and are interested in Education and Technology. Representative
Lofgren was a lawyer and taught law at Santa Clara University. Their
contributions could be the following: (1) Funding sources in particular
the $1 Billion available from the Federal Farmland Protection Program;
(2) National historical status for both the 1920 house and for the
agricultural land; (3) What governmental organization replaced the
national Grand Army of the Republic? If it was the Federal Department
of Veteran Affairs, then the federal government owns one of several
parcels of this land because the land was given to the Women’s
Relief Corps, the local organization for the Grand Army of the Republic.
Also, the money to build the 1920’s building was raised by
the Women’s Relief Corps. (4) Given the 1860’s federal
government’s Land Grant College system, is it possible to
remove a UC agricultural research facility for California's Central
Coast Bioregion and not replace it?
CONTACT THEM!
CITY
Full list of Council
members
Email
Santa Clara City Council
Council Member Rod Diridon
rod_diridon@yahoo.com
869 Hilmar Street Santa Clara, CA 95050
408-985-7204 (H)
STATE
Office of Assembly
Member Joe Smitian
Karen Brunton, Environmental Issues Specialist
karen.brunton@asm.ca.gov
160 Town and Country Village
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-688-6330
Fax 650-688-6336
Office of Assembly Member Sally Lieber
Kim Williams, Environmental Issues Specialist
kim.williams@asm.ca.gov
100 Paseo de San Antonio, Room 300
San Jose, CA 95113
408-277-2003
Fax 408-277-2684
Office of Senator Byron Sher
Mike Potter, Environmental Issues Specialist
mike.potter@sen.ca.gov
100 Paseo de San Antonio, Suite 206
San Jose, CA 95113
408-277-9460
Send a pre-formatted letter to Governor
Gray Davis.
Choose the letter that best states your opinion
and send these immediately:
Letter
1 - PDF Format
Letter
2 - PDF Format
Letter
3 - PDF Format
Letter
4 - PDF Format
You can also send an email backup to
insure your letter is read by Governor Gray Davis. Send emails to
governor@governor.ca.gov
Office of Assembly
Member Rebecca Cohn
Nicholas Ammann, Environmental Issues Specialist Nicholas.ammann@asm.ca.gov
901 Campisi Way, Suite 300
Campbell, CA 95008
408-369-8170
Office of Senator
John Vasconcellos
Jim Weston, Environmental Specialist Jim.
Weston@sen.ca.gov
100 Paseo San Antonio, Suite 209
San Jose, CA 95113
408-286-8318
Elaine Alquist, Campaign Office for Senate
alquist4senate@aol.com
PO Box 1192
Santa Clara, CA 95052
408-985-4172 or 408-985-4124
FEDERAL
US Representative Mike Honda
Matt Bostick, Environmental Assistant
matthew.bostick@mail.house.gov
1999 So. Bascom Avenue, Suite 815
Campbell, CA 95008
408-558-8085
US Representative Zoe Lofgren
San Jose Office Manager
635 North First
San Jose, CA 95112-5110
408-271-8700