The exterior of San Jose City Hall
San Jose City Hall is pictured in this file photo.

San Jose voters living downtown will decide in April who they want to represent them on the City Council for the next two years.

Seven candidates are running for the District 3 seat, including San Jose Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos, Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley Executive Director Gabby Chavez-Lopez, mayoral staffer Matthew Quevedo, pro tem judge Irene Smith, retired family counselor Tyrone Wade, retired sheriff Lt. Adam Duran and Philip Dolan, a knife sharpener salesman.

City officials voted on Jan. 28 to appoint Carl Salas, founder of an engineering and technical services firm, to temporarily represent downtown San Jose until the April 8 special election, or possibly later if a summer runoff is required.

Facing a larger than expected budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal years, along with mounting concerns about homelessness, housing and the local economy, District 3 candidates shared with San José Spotlight their plans for leading downtown in a positive direction through 2026.

Not only are residents vested in the outcome of this year’s special election in light of former District 3 Councilmember Omar Torres resigning in disgrace, business and housing advocates say downtown’s next elected representative can influence the future growth of San Jose.

Here are the District 3 San Jose City Council candidates in alphabetical order by last name:

Gabby Chavez-Lopez

San Jose City Council District 3 Candidate Gabby Chavez-Lopez. Photo courtesy of Gabby Chavez-Loepz.
San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Gabby Chavez-Lopez. Photo courtesy of candidate.

Chavez-Lopez, 37, said she’s no stranger to dealing with fluctuating budgets as the yearslong executive director of nonprofit Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley. She said she knows how to identify core services needed to run an organization effectively — whether it’s a nonprofit or a city government.

“We should be figuring out how to best empower workers and employees at the city who are the lifeline of the organization and providing services,” she told San José Spotlight. “As it relates to laying people off, I don’t think that’s a good route. And I know this as an employer, it costs so much less to retain an employee than it does to fire someone and then have to rehire.”

In her conversations with District 3 residents, Chavez-Lopez said they want to see increased parks maintenance and beautification. Residents want to spend more time in open spaces as pandemic restrictions have mostly subsided, she said, and active parks bring pride to neighborhoods.

Chavez-Lopez said neighborhood wellness involves moving homeless residents off the streets and sidewalks. To address the long-term housing crisis in areas like downtown, Chavez-Lopez wants to retain the spirit of Measure E funds meant to pay for permanent affordable housing. The council voted to divert those dollars  toward temporary homeless solutions last year.

“Everything should be on the table, and obviously communities should be engaged in that conversation,” Chavez-Lopez said. “With the housing crisis we’re in right now, we’re going to have to jumpstart some of these developments. When we think about vibrancy, we think about bringing residents to our downtown core. If you have bodies downtown, people and workers, they’re supporting the small businesses and it becomes this force multiplier effect.”

Philip Dolan

San Jose City Council District 3 Candidate Philip Dolan. Photo courtesy of Philip Dolan.
San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Philip Dolan. Photo courtesy of candidate.

Dolan, 49, works as a knife sharpener tech and salesman by day. He said the state of San Jose’s housing and homelessness crisis drove him to enter the race for District 3.

“Let’s clean it up. You know? It’s not hard. It just takes somebody with will,” Dolan told San José Spotlight. “I look at the city and I’m just like, ‘What is going on with these leaders?’ Somebody needs to stand up and be an adult about it and say, ‘We’re cleaning this up.’”

He said working in restaurants and grocery stores in Northern California gave him a sense of what everyday residents want, and his years of sales work can help him connect with many of those same residents at City Hall.

Dolan is unhappy with San Jose’s lack of housing construction over the past year, and said he wants to cut through time-consuming levels of approval and city fees to speed up development. He said his first days in office would be spent meeting with potential downtown developers and explaining to residents the benefits of developer incentives meant to cut city fees for building.

“Housing costs are driven up, and then the city tells developers, ‘We want you to make roads and improvements too.’ So now you’re looking at $1 million for a few houses,” Dolan said. “Why is housing being driven up? Regulations have a lot to do with it.”

Adam Duran

San Jose City Council District 3 Candidate Adan Duran. Photo courtesy of Adam Duran.
San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Adam Duran. Photo courtesy of candidate.

Duran, 58, spent nearly 29 years as a lieutenant with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. He wants to bring a renewed focus on public safety and trust to the District 3 office.

“When this situation happened with Mr. Torres, which is horrible, it was a really heartbreaking and traumatic break in trust for the community. That’s how I got involved,” Duran told San José Spotlight. “One of my goals for the community is to build that trust again, with integrity, transparency and accountability.”

Everything from homelessness to the revitalization of downtown depends on public safety, Duran said, and the perceived lack of safety is why people are cautious to live in or visit downtown. As the council grapples with budget shortfalls in coming years, he said he would advocate for public safety departments like police and fire to keep as much funding as possible.

Duran said he wants to focus on empowering the city’s short-staffed police department so residents can feel more confident their criminal reports are being addressed.

“As a lieutenant, if I was caught away from my assigned position and I tried to lie myself out of it, I’d get fired because the trust is broken — and that’s where District 3 is right now,” he said. “I don’t burn bridges and the residents can trust me to keep my promises.”

Matthew Quevedo

San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Matthew Quevedo. Photo courtesy of candidate.

While Quevedo, 36, is deputy chief of staff for Mayor Matt Mahan, he said he’s more than his job. He’s lived across different areas of District 3 with his family the past few years.

Working with Mahan over the last five years, along with a stint as director of housing, transportation and community engagement policy for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Quevedo describes himself as the most qualified candidate. He’s focusing his campaign on addressing neighborhood blight, housing affordability, public safety and the need to keep small businesses afloat.

“Residents have seen me in the neighborhoods, working with folks directly in their communities,” he told San José Spotlight. “We want to get folks off of the streets and build housing so that folks get the services they deserve. On public safety, we’ve seen that we need to continue to focus on rebuilding our police department, ensuring that residents have officers available to them in neighborhoods throughout the district.”

Quevedo helped District 3 residents launch a recall initiative last October as Torres refused to resign, prior to his Election Day arrest for alleged child sex abuse. After achieving a better-staffed police department, Quevedo said residents will see the type of investment downtown has been craving.

“People live in downtown because they want to go downtown. They want to shop at a grocery store or restaurant, basically live in that walkable community we all desire,” Quevedo said. “I want to build a stakeholder committee that’s working with residents and developers to have open and honest conversations about the future of our downtown, then forward that to the city council.”

Irene Smith

San Jose City Council District 3 Candidate Irene Smith. Photo courtesy of Irene Smith.
San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Irene Smith. Photo courtesy of candidate.

Smith, 64, previously ran for the District 3 seat against Torres in 2022. The mental health counselor and pro tem judge for Santa Clara County said downtown needs to reclaim its identity as a distinct city district that demands personalized solutions to address blight, homelessness and overall neighborhood wellness.

“Our district has the largest number of street unhoused, rampant encampment fires and toxic smoke, blight and dumping, lack of adequate law enforcement with runaway roadshows, triple-parked cars and crime,” Smith told San José Spotlight. “After running the gauntlet of a full election process, and as the second place finisher two years ago, I have my finger firmly on the pulse of District 3 better than any other candidate.”

Smith said her decade-long experience as a former financial analyst with IBM qualifies her to bring her plan of fiscal responsibility to the city council.

She said she wants to eliminate wasteful spending, get rid of unnecessary red tape for businesses and developments wanting to plant roots in downtown and create a “Downtown Recovery Caucus” to address the area’s potential for vibrancy. It’s time to let other city officials know District 3 is not a dumping ground nor a test site, she said.

“I will accept no more affordable housing, safe sleeping sites nor tiny home communities in District 3 until the other districts do their part and achieve parity,” she told San José Spotlight. “District 3 needs a councilmember who is beholden only to District 3, not to City Hall power cabals and voting blocs.”

Anthony Tordillos

San Jose City Council District 3 Candidate Anthony Tordillos. Photo courtesy of Anthony Tordillos.
San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Anthony Tordillos. Photo courtesy of candidate.

Tordillos, 33, sees many sides of downtown as chair of the San Jose Planning Commission. He said it makes him uniquely positioned to tackle the wants of developers and needs of residents.

“On housing affordability, I believe I’m the candidate best positioned to really lead on this,” he told San José Spotlight. “The city has some levers they can actually use that have not been fully exercised today. We need to streamline development approvals and make it faster to get projects approved and under construction.”

A self-proclaimed housing advocate, Tordillos said he wants to streamline design standards and development guidelines to make it cheaper to build housing in San Jose. To address long-term housing shortage concerns, he said the city needs to work with regional and state partners to identify funding for construction of permanently affordable housing. State mandates, requiring the city to clear homeless encampments along the waterways to comply with a stormwater permit, have driven the city to create temporary shelter — but more affordable housing remains the goal.

Tordillos said he also wants to address vacancies in SJPD because of slowing response times, as it will help rebuild trust with residents.

“My husband and I are fortunate to be homeowners here. We want to raise a family here, so I’m very bought into the future of our community,” Tordillos said. “It’s been a very difficult time for District 3 residents with everything that’s happened over the past six months, and I’m committed to being a councilmember who can work to rebuild trust with our community and really be a councilmember the residents of District 3 can count on.”

Tyrone Wade

San Jose City Council District 3 Candidate Tyrone Wade. Photo by Vicente Vera.
San Jose City Council District 3 candidate Tyrone Wade. Photo by Vicente Vera.

Wade, 74, organized alongside civil rights leaders in the 1960s before turning to private life as a marriage and family crisis counselor. He challenged Mahan for the mayor’s seat last year, and said his experience running homeless shelters in Bay Area cities has helped prepare him to address the city’s housing crisis and foster economic growth.

“The mayor is going to need experienced, knowledgeable and creative councilmembers to work with so that he can move this city forward,” Wade told San José Spotlight. “For the residents of San Jose, I want to develop an opportunity zone committee — and for it to be admired by Silicon Valley.”

Wade said not only does he want to involve more residents in City Hall’s activities, he also wants to develop policies to create more equitable affordable housing, education and jobs. To address the immediate homeless crisis, he said city and nonprofit leaders should reduce the time it takes to connect unhoused residents with shelter. The city can also consider underground housing, he said, as it addresses not only space concerns, but can eliminate the lengthy public outreach process for proposed developments.
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Wade said one of his main priorities if elected would be enforcing minimum building requirements for developers, including city fees and public improvements.

“They pay a fee, but don’t develop the required affordable housing, so we’ve got to force that rule to have more affordable housing built. That’s going to be something I would like council to harp on,” Wade said.

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X.

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