Four candidates vie for District 10 City Council seat

By Kymberli W. Brady

Staff Writer

While most are busy preparing for the upcoming holiday season, others have their sights on the approaching March, 2004 municipal election as they announce their intent to pursue the District 10 City Council seat that will be left vacant when Vice Mayor Pat Dando leaves office on Dec. 31, 2004. Having reached her term limits, Dando will be free to pursue other opportunities, and rumor has it that she is being courted by several high-ranking political figures to pursue the state assembly.

In San Jose, policy leadership of elected officials is grouped into a council/manager type of government in the form of a city council, a legislative body empowered by the city charter to represent the community and develop city policy. With the mayor at the helm, the group consists of 10 councilmembers, each elected by their respective districts. The full-time job brings with it a $75,000 annual salary for a term of four years.

Three individuals have filed notices of intent to run for City Council, including local businessman Rich De La Rosa, Evergreen College District Trustee Nancy Pyle, and Alexander Vassar, a political science major at San Jose State University. On Monday, a fourth candidate surfaced–Valley Christian Schools Chancellor Claude Fletcher.

Born and raised in San Jose, Rich De La Rosa owns RDL Insurance Services, where he has served as an independent contractor for Allstate Insurance since 1976 and runs De La Rosa Latin/American Imports, a family-owned business in the Tropicana Shopping Center. His role as spokesman for the center's 60-70 merchants during a two-and-a-half- year battle to save it from eminent domain ignited his desire to run for public office. “I'm not doing this to become a professional politician,” he says. “I'm dong it to see our city move forward in this malaise so we can continue to make good choices in the future. Having been born in this town, I've watched it grow from a prune orchard to the Silicon Valley–the center of the world and I'd like to contribute more to that. I can't think of a better place to raise a family.”

De La Rosa lives with his wife Misty in the foothills of Blossom Valley. They have four grown children: Rich Jr., Amber, Alicia, and Nikki, as well as 3-year-old Danny, whom they are currently in the process of adopting.

De La Rosa's endorsements include those from Vice Mayor Pat Dando, Supervisor Don Gage, Compact Chamber of Commerce, and former Councilmember John DiQuisto.

Nancy Pyle was raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York before relocating to San Jose. She taught grades K-8 and served as the district director of legislative and community affairs for San Jose Unified School District. Pyle has lived in District 10 for nearly 25 years, where she also sold real estate and ran a small business with her husband, Roger. Together, they have five children.

Pyle is on the board of directors of the Almaden Valley Community Association and YWCA and was hailed as the driving force behind the successful passage of Measure I in 1998, which set the stage for the rebuilding of San Jose City College. She is also credited with aiding in successful negotiations that led to the new Cesar Chavez Library, which opened last September.

Pyle has served as trustee for the San Jose/Evergreen Community College for the past seven years, Her volunteer work has included chairing the Small Business Commission, vice president of the Notre Dame High School Board and member of the Leland High School Foundation.

This is Pyle's third run for City Council, and she has received several endorsements, including Congressman Mike Honda, State Senator Byron Sher, Councilmember Forrest Williams, SJUSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Linda Murray, and SJUSD Trustee Jorge Gonzales.

One of a slew of college students vying for a role in politics by pursuing public office, Alexander Vassar is a political science major in his senior year at San Jose State. He has lived in Blossom Valley with his wife, Jane for two years. This is Vassar's first run for the City Council seat. “I really want to make sure our area has a good representative who is really interested and has a strong desire to represent folk who are working in this area,” he says. “I'm young, so I'll be working here. I have long-term interests in making this a really good community to live in for the next 30 years.”

After a loss to Tom McEnery during the mayoral election 17 years ago, Claude Fletcher officially announced to the Almaden Times on Monday that he will pursue his political comeback with a return bid for the City Council seat that he occupied from 1980 to 1984.

Fletcher is the chancellor of Valley Christian Schools. He owns a business management-consulting firm and serves as the bankruptcy trustee for the Northern California District U.S. Trustee's Office.

In addition to holding board positions with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, the Association of Bay Area Governments, the South Valley YMCA, San Jose Police Activities League, and the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Fletcher has also been active with the California Attorney General Citizen Advisory Council. He and his wife Trish have lived in Almaden for the past 30 years. The have three adult children and five grandchildren.

The nomination period will begin on Monday and continue until Friday, Dec. 5 at noon, during which all candidates must submit a minimum of 50 signatures with their nomination papers to qualify for a spot on the March ballot. Unless one candidate gets at least 50 percent of the vote, the top two will face each other in a run-off election on Nov. 2, where the winner will hold the office from Jan. 1, 2005 through Dec. 31, 2008.

More information on the candidates can be found on the following Web sites: Nancy Pyle; www.nancypyle.net , Alexander Vassar; www.alexvassar.com . De La Rosa's site, www.voterichdelarosa.com will be live in two weeks, and Fletcher is currently developing his Web site.

Candidates	Top Five Priorities if Elected	Stand on Development	Stand on Sports Complex
Nancy Pyle (D)	Job creation through incentives to attract new businesses and mentoring for small businesses. Promotion of efficient, user-friendly city services and clear and timely communication with those who must interact with the city. A long-range financial plan for our city that honors priorities such as public safety and infrastructure concerns. Common sense fiscal management of our city budget. Optimal usage of our public facilities and land with dedicated space for sports for our youth. Continue city efforts to promote affordable housing.	“I'm not completely decided at this point. I've been working with the Almaden Valley Community Association and I'm pretty much going to stick with the decision that they make next Monday.”	“I fully embrace this and feel that we should continue to work on the project. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to find a field for these kids to play. We have to be flexible and think in terms of other sites as well. We need to be looking anywhere we can to make this happen–and the sooner the better.”
Rich De La Rosa (R)	Neighborhoods come first–fire and police are number-one issues as far as safety. Affordable housing for seniors–we need to take advantage of the light rail corridor and should develop that sensibly. Programs for kids–we need to take responsibility developing the infrastructure we already have, such as ball fields. Traffic–we need to alleviate the problem by developing additional housing around our transportation corridor. Business development and jobs–we need to step out of the box and do whatever is necessary to start growth in our job market.	“We need to make sure that we maintain a good balance of growth and preservation of open spaces in an intelligent way that is best for our community. We need to keep our foothills pristine and beautiful. That's why people chose to live here. We have some wonderful open spaces in the Almaden Valley and Santa Teresa areas that we need to make sure we continue to care for.”	“I am in favor of developing facilities for kids and saw the need when I was Little League president. We used every field we could. There are lots of organizations all vying for the same fields. Sports teach our kids so much–how to work with other kids, the ability to win and lose and do it gracefully. At the same time, we have a situation that needs to be mitigated. Some homeowners are very concerned about water and traffic problems that have to be dealt with. However we develop it, we need to do it in a sensible way.”
Alexander Vassar (R)	Bring businesses back to the area. Lower the cost of basic city services. Open the libraries on Sundays. Add a general use lane (not a HOT lane) to highway 87. Create free pet registration.	Currently no position	Currently no position
Claude Fletcher (R)	Public safety to maintain a strong police department and fire department. Development–protecting our way of life is vital to the future of our neighborhoods. Any proposed development must be carefully and critically analyzed for a complete understanding of its potential impact on our lives. Traffic–we must seek ways to ease commutes and assure that our roadways don't become bigger parking lots with longer time consuming delays. City Infrastructure–we must always assure that basic services of the city are adequately budgeted. Affordable Housing–we need to enhance and intensify city efforts to provide affordable housing for our children.	Currently no position	“I have always been supportive of adding sports fields for the kids because of the positive aspect it has on the community. I hope that we can find a way to allow that development to occur. I think we can do it without a major impact on the environment by going in with artificial turf–we can solve the water concerns that way. I also think we can mitigate the potential traffic problems to the point that we can make it an acceptable project. It's vital for kids.”