Five candidates compete for three Campbell City Council seats

Voters in three of Campbell’s five City Council districts will cast ballots in the Nov. 3 election, though only two districts have more than one candidate.

Councilmember Dan Furtado — currently serving a one-year rotating term as mayor – is running for reelection in District 3 against local business owner Joe Brenner. District 4 Councilmember Elliot Scozzola is not seeking another term, leaving Planning Commission Chair Davis Fields facing off against political newcomer Joseph Guardado. Councilmember Anne Bybee is termed out in District 5, with tech executive Daraius Sorabji running unopposed for the seat.

Hot issues in the city of approximately 43,000 people include meeting state housing development goals while preserving residential neighborhoods and the need for generational change.

Here are the five candidates by district and in alphabetical order by last name:

District 3

Joe Brenner

Joe Brenner, owner of South Bay Suds, which sells commercial cleaning products, is eager to contribute fresh views to the Campbell City Council.

“I’ve been an active volunteer in the community and I realized the next step in public service is running for office,” Brenner, 36, told San José Spotlight. “I, like many people, often lament what feels like a lack of engagement from younger generations in the political process.”

Brenner’s volunteer work includes serving as president of the Downtown Campbell Neighborhood Association, sitting on the board of Silicon Valley Shakespeare and chairing the ambassador committee of the Campbell Chamber of Commerce.

His top goal for the city is growing revenue by improving the business climate.

“If you talk to businesses in Campbell, particularly downtown, they don’t often have a great relationship with the city,” he said. “I think the city needs to be a little more open-minded to creative solutions to bring in sales tax revenue-generating businesses.”

Brenner also wants the city to get ahead of state housing mandates for how many homes Campbell needs to plan for over the next several years.

“When you kick the can down the road for long enough, you can’t really be upset when someone else decides to pick it up,” he said. “Unless we start pushing for truly high-density (development), we’re going to start seeing things like that crop up in (residential) neighborhoods.”

Dan Furtado

Councilmember Dan Furtado has contributed a lifetime of service to his native city, including a total of 18 years on the city council.

“I think my greatest asset is my experience,” Furtado, 82, told San José Spotlight. “I have studied every area of city government responsibilities and have experience in each one.”

A veteran who retired as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Furtado was also a professor of pharmacology who taught at Stanford University and Cal State University Monterey Bay. He has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the National League of Cities, the Association of Bay Area Governments and VTA’s Policy Advisory Committee.

“I really just enjoy local public policy because you can make things happen,” Furtado said. “You can fix potholes and create parks and do a variety of things like that.”

Furtado wants to maintain a balance of services across quality of life, public safety and youth programs, even as Campbell – like most California cities – struggles with a tight budget. He also wants to get ahead of the curve on housing.

“The state has encroached so much on local government prerogatives and decision-making that we are forced to do a number of things that may not be in the best interest (of the city),” he said. “I always try to make the best of it and look at what we can do and how we can serve residents.”

Furtado has a long list of endorsements, including all four of his city council colleagues, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Assemblyman Patrick Ahrens, state Sen. Josh Becker and Congressman Sam Liccardo.

District 4

Davis Fields

In talking with residents, Campbell Planning Commission Chair Davis Fields said he’s found a top issue in the city is traffic safety, followed by housing and the city’s aging infrastructure.

“The first thing I hear a lot is pedestrian safety and traffic safety,” Fields, 40, told San José Spotlight. “They want to make sure we have safe streets for people to walk on and bike on, and for people to feel they’re in neighborhoods that are welcoming.”

On housing, Fields — who joined the planning commission in 2022 — supports new homes at all price points, but wants growth while respecting neighborhood character and concerns from residents.

A tech executive who previously served on the Civic Improvement Commission, Fields also wants to repair or replace the city’s aging public infrastructure. The issue received more attention in July when Campbell suddenly closed its public pool permanently due to unrepairable leaks.

“Where people were disappointed is that there hadn’t been enough of an early conversation on the cost (of fixing or replacing the pool) and how to approach a project like that,” Fields said. “We needed to have a hard conversation on how we fund this and figure out an approach where residents at least have transparency on the answer.”

Endorsements for Fields include Councilmembers Anne Bybee, Terry Hines and Sergio Lopez, Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, Assemblyman Ahrens and the Campbell Police Officers Association.

Joseph Guardado

Joseph Guardado, a grocery store clerk, got his motivation to run for the District 4 council seat from witnessing a car hitting a pedestrian in his neighborhood four years ago.

“It really highlighted the dangers in my community in terms of our infrastructure — sidewalks, road lighting, things like that,” Guardado, 21, told San José Spotlight. “I’m the youngest person in this race. I want other people who are younger than me to see what I’m doing and be inspired that they can also make change in their community.”

In addition to traffic safety and infrastructure, Guardado said his priorities are financial transparency, adding more public transportation and looking for ways to reduce city taxes.

“Our city is growing and cities around us are growing,” he said. “Our infrastructure needs to grow in a way that can accommodate the mass amounts of people that we’re going to get in the future.”

Guardado also wants the city to be more transparent with its finances and provide residents with more details on spending.

“We have access to our fiscal year budget, but we don’t have access to an exact itemized list of what our taxes are being used on,” he said. “Some of that information just gets lost or is simply not provided to the public.”

District 5

Daraius Sorabji

Daraius Sorabji, a tech executive who previously ran for a council seat in 2018, wants the council to do more to follow up when residents raise concerns.

“I have gone to multiple meetings and brought up issues and they let you talk for two minutes,” Sorabji, 62, told San José Spotlight. “(Councilmembers) say ‘thank you’ and don’t discuss what you brought up. They don’t look into it and they do nothing. I think that’s a disservice to constituents and I would like to see that change.”

Sorabji said he supports a balanced approach to housing growth, making sure that infrastructure — such as road access — is sufficient to handle increased population. He also wants to explore ways to help the city’s homeless residents.

“I’d like to get these folks (indoors) on cold days,” he said. “The community center has buildings that are usually warm and have electricity and are not being used.”

Sorabji additionally wants to look for ways to reign in Campbell’s sales tax, currently the highest in Santa Clara County.

“If I have a reduction in income, I don’t go begging for more,” he said. “I cut back on expenses that I can control. We can’t continue to go in that direction. We need to be able to be more efficient.”

Contact Mike Langberg at [email protected].