Eight candidates compete for Cupertino council seats

Cupertino voters are facing another high-stakes City Council election between the community’s pro-growth and slow-growth factions.

Eight candidates have qualified for three council seats on the Nov. 3 ballot, with seven newcomers and one councilmember — J.R. Fruen — seeking a second term. Vice Mayor Liang Chao terms out in December and Councilmember Sheila Mohan opted not to seek reelection, leaving two open seats up for grabs on the five-member council.

Three pro-growth candidates — Fruen, Seema Sharma Lindskog and John Tang — have formed a slate called Cupertino Together, while three slow-growth candidates —Tracy Kosolcharoen, Gopal Kumarappan and Santosh Rao — are loosely working together as the city struggles with state-mandated goals to build thousands of homes in the face of frequent neighborhood opposition.

Other key issues include the decline of retail in Cupertino, partially because stores are being replaced with high-density housing, and whether the city is spending tax dollars responsibly.

Here are the council candidates in alphabetical order by last name:

Mark Fantozzi

Mark Fantozzi, 75, is a structural civil engineer. He objects to state housing laws that limit local control over housing development and sued the city in May to stop a townhome project across the street from his home. The lawsuit is ongoing.

The 51-home development on Linda Vista Drive is in a zone at high risk for wildfire — and Fantozzi said the city didn’t adequately consider emergency evacuation routes.

“(State housing laws) are forcing changes in neighborhoods and communities where no one has an opportunity to weigh in,” Fantozzi told San José Spotlight. “A good chunk of Cupertino is in a very-high fire hazard zone and they’re building high-density housing in those areas. That makes no sense.”

Fantozzi, who has previously served on Cupertino’s Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, said he would work to streamline city government if elected and make municipal spending more transparent.

“A lot of folks in politics make things complicated when they’re not, because that drives the conversation,” he said. “Most things can be simplified to the point where you can make some fairly reasonable decisions that meet people’s needs.”

J.R. Fruen

J.R. Fruen, 46, is seeking a second term on the council after voters elected him in 2022.

He’s joining with two like-minded candidates — Seema Sharma Lindskog and John Tang — in the Cupertino Together group in a bid for pro-growth candidates to regain a council majority lost in 2024.

“That was the principal reason (for forming Cupertino Together), to provide a clear choice of priorities and values and to make it possible to then enact that agenda so people get what they voted for,” Fruen, told San José Spotlight.

Fruen — an attorney who works as chief of staff for San Jose Councilmember Rosemary Kamei — said the council’s current slow-growth majority is holding Cupertino back by impeding housing projects and triggering costly litigation.

“It takes serious policymakers to understand that you don’t always get the things that you would prefer and sometimes you have to make uncomfortable compromises in order to achieve the best result,” Fruen said.

Endorsements for the Cupertino Together candidates include Cupertino Councilmember Sheila Mohan, seven former mayors, Santa Clara County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, Assemblymembers Alex Lee and Patrick Ahrens and state Sen. Josh Becker.

Tracy Kosolcharoen

Tracy Kosolcharoen, 40, is chair of the Cupertino Planning Commission and VTA’s Citizen Advisory Committee. She said she’s running for a council seat to preserve the city’s quality of life.

“My track record reflects the positions I would take on the issues,” Kosolcharoen told San José Spotlight. “I’ve advocated for thoughtful zoning that adds housing in the heart of our city while protecting existing businesses and neighborhoods.”

Kosolcharoen is part of a loosely affiliated three-candidate slow-growth group, along with Gopal Kumarappan and Santosh Rao, whose outdoor campaign signs are often clustered together.

Another priority for Kosolcharoen is protecting retail businesses in Cupertino through streamlined permitting, zoning rules that guarantee a future for retail shops and support programs for businesses displaced by new housing construction. Kosolcharoen also wants to make sure tax dollars are spent wisely.

“We do have a lot of very expensive projects that are either in the pipeline or the city would like to do,” she said. “For example, a $54 million renovation of City Hall to make it seismically safe, which is important. But when I go into the line items on that contract, I see things that I think could cost less.”

Endorsements for Kosolcharoen include Councilmembers Liang Chao and R “Ray” Wang, three former mayors and three trustees of local school boards.

Gopal Kumarappan

Gopal Kumarappan, a 58-year-old tech executive who chairs the Parks and Recreation Commission, has spent more than 25 years as a volunteer teacher and coach who wants to lead by listening to residents. He said educating the community on tough issues such as housing can limit opposition to growth.

“Growth should strengthen Cupertino, not overwhelm it,” Kumarappan told San José Spotlight.

Kumarappan, who has served on several city commissions, also emphasizes the need to involve residents of all ages, especially youth, in city leadership.

“Many young adults are not civically engaged, except for the Teen Commission, and I don’t want to wait until they get older to ask them to participate,” Kumarappan said. “I’d like to see them meaningfully represented and engaged in city commissions, committees and initiatives. That’s where they can bring new energy and ideas.”

Seema Sharma Lindskog

Seema Sharma Lindskog, 60, sits on the Cupertino Planning Commission and chairs the community group Walk Bike Cupertino. She has a front row seat to observe what she described as dysfunction triggered by the council’s slow-growth majority.

“They have nothing to show for the last 10 years, except failed policies, and they have divided residents, they have burned bridges with our local partners in neighboring cities and with state and county officials,” Lindskog told San José Spotlight. “They’ve said ‘no’ to housing. They don’t have a vision for the city. All they have is what they don’t want.”

As part of a long-term plan for the city, Lindskog wants to develop retail clusters so small businesses can help each other attract customers while also bringing more mid-sized businesses to Cupertino.

“This would create new sources of diversified tax revenues for us,” she said. “Then we’re not just dependent on small businesses and one trillion-dollar company (Apple).”

Santosh Rao

Santosh Rao is a 52-year-old tech executive who chairs the planning commission. He said he wants to make sure city government is efficient and responsible.

“My focus is on putting residents first, on respecting our taxpayer dollars, and making sure to hold City Hall accountable,” he told San José Spotlight. “I will do that in a way that works across the aisle. That’s my commitment to residents.”

Rao has often opposed state-mandated housing projects and said his time on the planning commission gives him experience in knowing when state laws allow room for deviations.

Rao said the city is mistreating businesses in an attempt to increase tax revenues as the city faces a budget shortfall because of increasing costs for police services from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

“I believe that being pro-business means that we need to cut regulations for our businesses,” he said. “Our city has gone in the opposite direction with an attempt to be punitive for non-compliance. This is something we’ve never done before. The reason is because our city is looking for more dollars to add to the top line instead of evaluating the bottom line and looking at cost cuts.”

Endorsements for Rao include Councilmembers Chao and Wang, two former mayors and three board members of local school districts.

John Tang

John Tang spent more than 20 years sitting across the table from government officials as a public affairs executive at San Jose Water before joining San Jose as its deputy director of water resources in April. He wants to use that experience to help what he said is a divided city.

“Cupertino is kind of split into two camps,” Tang, who is part of the Cupertino Together group, told San José Spotlight. “You’re either anti-development or you’re pro-development. We (Cupertino Together) are certainly on the pro-development side. We think we need to make smarter housing choices. (The slow-growth side has) consistently shown they don’t want to see development. That’s what really separates us.”

Tang, a civil engineer who teaches engineering classes at San Jose State University, also wants the city to move past the objections from slow-growth councilmembers that have caused turnover in key staff roles, including the city attorney and city manager.

“I’ve seen too many instances of (leaders in Cupertino) operating at the 5-foot level instead of the 100-foot level where they’re supposed to be,” he said. “Developers are looking at Cupertino and thinking, ‘Why would I want to come to your city to do work there?’”

J.Z. Wang

J.Z. “Jane” Wang has filed multiple unsuccessful lawsuits against the city over the years, starting with a dispute 10 years ago over a structure in her backyard that violated building codes.

In 2023, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge declared  Wang a “vexatious litigant” who is effectively barred from further legal action against the city, noting that city officials “have expended tremendous, unnecessary resources to respond to (Wang’s) seemingly endless filings and challenges.”

Wang, who gave her age as “around 50” and described her professions as engineer, caretaker and businesswoman, said she is running because the city council needs to do a better job of listening to residents and engaging with the issues.

“The city doesn’t have enough public trust,” Wang told San José Spotlight.

Wang doesn’t think her past legal fights with the city would make it difficult to serve on the council if voters elect her in November.

“Disagreements don’t have to prevent people from working together,” she said.

Contact Mike Langberg at [email protected].