Questions & Answers

1. Why are you running for re-election as mayor?
It is an honor to serve as Mayor. I enjoy it and believe that I am very good at it. My accomplishments and experience as mayor, Council member and businessman; my knowledge of Morgan Hill; and my interpersonal skills give me the confidence to expect that Morgan Hill will continue to benefit from my leadership; that we can make our great community even better.

2. What is the most important issue facing our City?
The recession and its impact on our budget. It is essential that we maintain our sustainable budget strategy to assure the future financial well-being of the community. It will likely mean making even more tough decisions on cutting services to the community and doing things even more efficiently in the future. We have a great staff that has met all the financial challenges they have faced with a positive, can-do attitude; and I am confident that we will weather this financial storm and emerge even stronger.

3. If elected, what will you do differently over the next two years?
As the recession deepened, we found ourselves keeping a very close eye on finances and now that we see our reserves reaching the minimum level, we will need to stay right on top of our financial situation.

My experience has taught me the value of having regional partnerships and being able to influence issues of concern to Morgan Hill at the regional level. I have built a large network of elected officials in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties as well as State Assembly, State Senate and Congressional electeds and staff. I will be continuing to build Morgan Hill's regional influence.

One of the things I like most about this job is the variety of issues and different topics that come up, there is always a fresh challenge to take on and we have quite a few on the horizon. I am eager to take them on!

4. How do you intend to control City costs?
We must continue our tried and true method for this - our Sustainable Budget Strategy. We do frequent updates to a five-year projection of income and use them to set, or adjust if necessary, our budget. Judicious use of reserves has been employed and there is a mechanism to assure we don't over use them to create a deficit.

We also have a prioritization process to make cuts when they become necessary, so that we only cut the lower priority services in terms of what our residents expect.

5. How about police costs? Is the Sheriff an option?
The Council determined not to pursue contracting police services to the Sheriff at this time. The City Manager is recruiting a new Chief and we will have one on board by year-end.

The Council is putting an intense focus on the outcomes we need to achieve in the public safety arena. We will focus our limited resources on achieving those outcomes. We are also looking into "VIP" - Volunteer in Policing programs that would alleviate our officers of some of their heavy administrative burden.

6. How will you deal with City employee pensions that may become impossible to provide?
Pension reform is one of the issues that has to be addressed regionally, and that is happening. Some jurisdictions have gone to a two-tier system recently, which is really encouraging and we are definitely looking at following suit. Any action we take on our own could encourage our great employees to "seek greener pastures", which is why it needs to be done in concert with others.

There are also some very creative proposals for addressing current employee pensions that need to be explored further in concert with the State retirement system, and that is also ongoing now. We need to assure that whatever solutions we employ are fair and as equitable as possible for our employees while at the same time assuring that they alleviate the City of an unsustainable financial burden.

7. How will you get staff to accept changes and still be positive when dealing with residents?
We have outstanding staff that understand the importance of customer service and also understand the realities of the recession. We work closely with our staff through our employee bargaining units so that when changes need to be made, our employees are part of the process and "own" them, so changes are not mandated by management.

8. How will you reduce the price of City services? What City fees will you reduce to attract business?
Most City services and activities are "priced" to recover costs, so to remain fiscally sound, we cannot reduce them. We do review them regularly and adjust them up or down as necessary.

City fees levied on new or expanding businesses are different, we can look at special circumstances and the economic impact businesses may have and adjust fees if there is sufficient justification. Business attraction or expansion is definitely a priority; we need to be flexible and as accommodating as we can afford to be to encourage it.

9. What specifically are you going to do to make private sector job creation in Morgan Hill possible?
We have comprehensive strategies to retain, attract or help businesses expand. Morgan Hill is being extensively advertised as "business friendly" in the San Jose Business Journal, producing good results. Recently relocated businesses like Pinnacle Manufacturing, Del Monaco Foods and Lin Engineering are willing and excited to provide positive testimonials about what a great place this is to do business.

We also work jointly with our Chamber and Downtown Association on programs to attract new business. And we are exploring programs to potentially target specific green energy-type businesses to town. I am very open to other ideas and suggestions to expand our business and job population her in Morgan Hill, it can really help our long term financial well being.

10. What specifically are you going to do to make private sector job creation in Morgan Hill possible?
We have a comprehensive economic strategy to retain existing businesses, help existing businesses expand and attract new businesses. In the latter category we are advertising in the San Jose Business Journal and seeing good results. Also, recently relocated businesses like Pinnacle Manufacturing, Del Monaco Foods and Lin Engineering are eager to provide positive testimonials about what a great place Morgan Hill is to do business.

We also work in partnership with our Chamber and Downtown Association on programs to aggressively market Morgan Hill in order to attract new businesses. We are also exploring programs to target specific green energy-type businesses to town.

11. How will Morgan Hill be better with your leadership for the next two years?
It can be even better than the outstanding community it is today. We'll be further along implementing the downtown vision, closer to making it a reality. We'll know our firm direction for the southeast quadrant and projects could be underway there, including the Catholic High School. A General Plan update will likely be underway, extended the community's vision by another ten years. We'll have acquired additional land for future recreation, and may be able to start planning its use. If the economy cooperates and we see recovery on the way, we can potentially plan to reinstate some cut services, which will make us safer and better able to maintain our assets. We will definitely retain our small-town feel and sense of community, and probably even strengthen it for having weathered the recession.

12. What separates you from the other candidates?
Experience, leadership, interpersonal skills and established relationships.

13. How do you plan to engage the community to address the challenges we have in Morgan Hill?
We have great citizen support in Morgan Hill, but the number of people that get out into the community to participate in dialogs about future direction is quite limited for a city with a population of 40,000. We would definitely like to see more involvement so we can have more confidence that the input we get is representative of the entire City.

I see one benefit of the current Mayor/City Council campaign is that will engage some new participants and we will encourage their future involvement. A big decision facing the Council next Spring is the downtown Monterey Road streetscape and whether to keep four lanes or reduce to two, sessions for public input on that are being planned now and I will encourage participation during the campaign. Reaching out and "engaging" more citizens is very important as we go into our General Plan update process, essentially establishing the community's vision an additional ten years into the future.

14. What role does Morgan Hill play in South County? How about in the Silicon Valley region?
Morgan Hill has a very close relationship with Gilroy and with Santa Clara County through our South County Board representative Don Gage, who terms out this year. We work very collaboratively on issues such as High Speed Rail, Caltrain service and gang prevention strategies. We've been working for over a year now on a South County regional approach to fire and emergency medical services. We are making good progress on this very complicated subject, and hope to be able to make recommendations on how services can be improved by a consolidated approach within the next year.

It becomes more and more important over time to have influence and be a respected voice in the region. Transportation issues, water issues, environmental issues, employee contractual issues are just some examples of why this is so important. I serve as an officer on the League of California Peninsula Division and will be an officer next year on the Santa Clara County Cities Association Board (if reelected). Not too long ago, San Jose planned to pave over Coyote Valley and we were not given any input whatsoever to their plans. Fortunately the new San Jose administration wisely scrapped those plans, but I don't want Morgan Hill to ever be "odd man out" again.

15. Why should I vote "Tate for Mayor"?
I love Morgan Hill; it is a very special place. Living here, I have grown increasingly attached to and involved in this wonderful community. My community knowledge and extensive experience, coupled with my leadership skills prepared me for the ultimate leadership role in Morgan Hill, and I believe I have performed it very well over the past four years. I am excited and eager to continue serving a mayor.