Santa Clara voters in November will weigh whether to replace half their elected officials and decide who should win a highly-competitive open seat.
Voters will also be asked to cough up money to fix the city’s crumbling roads and buildings.
The Santa Clara City Council has four seats up for election in Districts 1, 4, 5 and 6 — with three incumbents seeking reelection. District 1 Councilmember Kathy Watanabe, a reliable ally of Mayor Lisa Gillmor, is terming out and three candidates are vying to replace her.
Ballots will be mailed to all voters on Oct. 7. Election Day is Nov. 5.
The Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury called the embattled council “dysfunctional” in a recent report, though councilmembers dismissed its findings. All three incumbents up for reelection — Councilmembers Kevin Park, Suds Jain and Anthony Becker — are facing challengers as the city’s divisive political climate has become fodder for political campaigns. A handful of candidates have signed a contentious pledge to build public trust, which critics claim is a guise for bias against the councilmembers who disputed the grand jury findings.
In addition to the council races, Santa Clara voters will be asked to approve a $400 million general bond to help fund improvements to aging buildings and parks. The bond would be levied at $19 per $100,000 of assessed property value, and the city calculated an average annual increase of $128 for homeowners.
The money could help repair police and fire stations, aging park infrastructure and storm drains — all of which would help chip away at the city’s $624 infrastructure deficit.
Here’s a roundup of the Santa Clara City Council candidates:
Jump to your district
District 1
District 1 is bordered by Highway 237 in the north and the Caltrain tracks in the south. It encompasses Great America and Levi’s Stadium.
Watanabe is terming out in December after eight years on the council, and Harbir Bhatia, Satish Chandra and Albert Gonzalez are hoping to replace her.
Harbir Bhatia
Commitment to community service is what drove Bhatia to run for city council. Bhatia unsuccessfully ran for the District 1 seat in 2020 and is now CEO of the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce. Bhatia also traveled to Ukraine at the onset of the war, earning recognitions from multiple state and county representatives.
Bhatia, 53, said she wants to engage and inspire new community leaders, especially among Santa Clara’s youth, to become more involved in local governance.
“I don’t want to be sitting on that seat for the rest of my life,” Bhatia told San José Spotlight. “I always tell kids to get involved, because if they look, the decisions we make today, (they’re) stuck with.”
She also said the city’s northern neighborhoods have seen significant growth in the past few years, and she’ll prioritize maintaining and improving roads and other infrastructure to make that growth sustainable. Bhatia said she wants to facilitate tourism in Santa Clara to capitalize on the 2026 Super Bowl and World Cup and invigorate the local economy.
If elected, Bhatia would likely be a critic of Gillmor and hasn’t historically aligned with her positions — including her criticism of the 49ers.
Satish Chandra
Chandra, 51, said he got involved in Santa Clara politics after volunteering on Gillmor’s 2022 campaign. He criticized the 49ers pouring money into the race to defeat Gillmor and said he’s seen the impact Levi’s Stadium has had on neighboring communities, such as traffic and parking issues. He wants to find ways to better support these neighborhoods.
“I wholeheartedly came into this, politics, just to serve the community,” Chandra told San José Spotlight.
Chandra served on the city’s Charter Review Committee and currently serves on a committee advising the police chief on community issues such as public safety. He said his work with the city’s government and a campaign against Senate Bill 403, a bill to ban caste-based discrimination, inspired him to run for office.
Chandra said he would want to improve the city’s financial stability. The $400 million infrastructure bond on the November ballot is mostly allocated for facilities maintenance, which he said should have been handled sooner. Chandra proposes diversifying revenue streams to strengthen the city’s financial footing. He has been endorsed by Gillmor and the Santa Clara Police Officers Association.
Albert Gonzalez
Gonzalez has been a trustee of the Santa Clara Unified School District for the past 16 years, and hopes to bring his leadership and teamworking skills to the city council.
“If elected, I’m not going to be part of the problem. I’m going to be part of the solution, to make sure we have a council that works together, that’s more collaborative, even in votes we might not agree on,” Gonzalez, 52, told San José Spotlight.
Gonzalez said his biggest concern is Santa Clara’s high cost of living. He said he wants to incentivize building more affordable housing and streamline the permit process for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units. On the school board, Gonzalez supported more teacher housing and said the region’s affordability crisis is squeezing parents and teachers out of the city.
He wants to ensure city services can support Santa Clara’s aging population through increasing senior housing and other benefits targeting seniors. To maintain and expand public services, Gonzalez suggested working with companies based in Santa Clara, such as Nvidia, and finding other creative solutions to boost revenue.
District 4
District 4 is in West Santa Clara, bordered by El Camino Real in the north and Pruneridge Avenue in the south, Lawrence Expressway in the west and Saratoga Creek in the east. It contains part of Central Park.
Councilmember Kevin Park is facing a rematch against former Councilmember Teresa O’Neill who he unseated in 2020.
Kevin Park
Park said the way he spends most of his efforts as a councilmember is solving neighborhood issues — like residents who can’t get a fence installed around their houses because of city policies. He said these issues often don’t make it into a council meeting, but are more pressing for residents.
“We can talk up here about stadiums, and we’ve got to deal with that, but we can’t be so focused on those big things that we don’t get to work in the city,” Park, 54, told San José Spotlight. “I ran because I’m a resident, and how I came into politics is because I was part of a neighborhood.”
In his time on council, Park said he focused on how Levi’s Stadium could generate revenue for the city. He also tried working with the county to open a family homeless shelter on Benton Street after hearing from nearby residents. Plans for the shelter fell through after state funding couldn’t be secured.
If reelected, Park wants to improve core city services for residents. He said the George F. Haines International Swim Center is an example of how the city needs to plan for maintenance, so public facilities don’t fall into disrepair.
Teresa O’Neill
O’Neill, 69, represented District 4 for one term. She said she wasn’t expecting to run again, but Santa Clarans are urging her to get back into politics because of the current council’s dysfunction.
O’Neill grew up in Santa Clara County and remembers seeing the community shift into modern Silicon Valley. She said it’s important to combine that history with the growth the city is now experiencing.
“Meeting people from many different countries and cultures and ages, that gives me this blend of long-term roots to knowing that you do not have to have been somebody who’s been here forever to be an important, valued member of the community,” O’Neill told San José Spotlight.
Ethics will be one of O’Neill’s priorities if she wins. She proposes exploring new revenue streams to bolster city services. The city could also consider hiring an economic development officer to attract new businesses and increase its tax base. O’Neill said the city needs to establish a permanent commission to work on increasing its housing stock.
O’Neill has aligned with Gillmor in the past and could be a step in helping the mayor win back the council majority she lost in 2020.
District 5
District 5 is in East Santa Clara, bordered by El Camino Real in the north and Newhall Street and Homestead Road in the south, Saratoga Creek in the west and Portola Avenue in the east. This district is home to Santa Clara University.
Councilmember Suds Jain is fending off challenger David Kertes.
Suds Jain
Jain, 62, said his first term on the council has been a success and he’s fulfilled many campaign promises, such as expanding the city’s climate action plan. Voters elected him in 2020.
Jain spearheaded a new task force to tackle homelessness and hire a city sustainability manager.
“That’s really why I got into politics, was over the climate crisis, and since then I’ve kind of expanded my boundaries to handle a lot of homelessness issues and housing issues,” Jain told San José Spotlight. “I feel like I’ve learned the job now, I know what it takes, I know how much work it is, and I think I can continue to be successful.”
If given a second term, Jain said he’ll continue working on sustainability, affordable housing and homelessness initiatives. He’ll also prioritize the city’s financial future.
He believes civic engagement is key to the city’s success and wants to ensure Santa Clarans know what’s happening at City Hall. Jain was on the city Planning Commission and Charter Review Committee before he won his council seat, and said that track record of involvement helped him better understand how the city operates.
David Kertes
Kertes, 54, wants to bring his “business sense” to the city council to help negotiate contracts and plan for the future. Kertes has worked in sales and marketing for more than 20 years, and proposes looking at long-term planning to secure the city’s financial viability.
Kertes signed an independent ethics pledge and said he’ll prioritize government transparency by regularly talking to residents about the city’s business. Kertes said residents tell him the council is out of touch with their concerns and can’t seem to work together.
“You don’t have to be best friends but you have to be able to work together, and you can’t let the residents see that bickering and fighting,” Kertes told San José Spotlight.
He also wants to have discussions with Santa Clara Unified School District about sports field access. Kertes has coached for Westside Little League and Santa Clara Youth Soccer League, and said the school district prohibits youth groups from using fields before 6 p.m. which limits their ability to schedule practices. Kertes appears to be aligned with Gillmor’s policy positions and won endorsements from her and the city’s police union.
District 6
District 6 is in South Santa Clara, bordering Pruneridge Avenue and Homestead Road in the north and Stevens Creek Boulevard in the south, Winchester Boulevard in the east and Wolfe Road in the west.
Vice Mayor Anthony Becker faces challengers Kelly Cox and George Guerra.
Anthony Becker
Representing residents means answering to their needs, and Becker said he sees his job as a councilmember as a way to support them. For example, he once helped a resident get rid of a tree they’d unsuccessfully been trying to remove for a decade.
“Doing that kind of work for my community, giving back, basically service above self, is what I’ve been focusing on as a councilmember, and the feedback that I’ve gotten has actually been really good,” Becker, 39, told San José Spotlight.
Voters elected Becker in 2020.
Along with neighborhood concerns, Becker said he has helped decrease the city’s multimillion-dollar deficit and get out of costly litigation against the 49ers. Building up city coffers and reaching financial stability has been a key goal for him. He supported the passage of Measure H in 2022, which increased the city’s business taxes based on the number of employees.
When he ran for council four years ago, he had significant concerns about the city’s public spaces, like the International Swim Center and other recreational facilities. Becker said many city buildings need refurbishment, such as the city’s pools and parks, and he wants to improve the city’s fiscal health to help fund renovations.
Kelly Cox
Cox works as an assistant dean at Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering, and said she’s interested in politics from the lens of how people interact with each other.
Cox, 44, is a newcomer to politics and acknowledged the learning curve with difficult topics — such as city finances — but said she’ll lead with her morals. If elected, she wants to rebuild public trust in city processes and reopen negotiations over Levi’s Stadium, to scrutinize Measure J. That measure, passed in 2010, paved the way for building the stadium. She wants to ensure the city doesn’t lose money during large events, like the 2026 Super Bowl and World Cup.
Cox previously chaired the Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Commission, and has won Gillmor’s endorsement. She was critical of a decision last year to replace former Commissioner Burt Fields, who also aligns with the mayor.
“When I talk about restoring public trust, one thing is you’re going to have to walk the walk before people believe in you,” Cox told San José Spotlight. “I really want to understand what’s going on before I make a statement.”
George Guerra
Guerra, 60, wants to be a “breath of fresh air” on a city council fraught with disagreements.
“I’m kind of the independent candidate who wants to work with anybody who gets elected,” Guerra told San José Spotlight. “I’d like to put the past behind us because I think it’s going to not be useful if you carry that on through November.”
Guerra said councilmembers must work collaboratively to keep the city moving forward, and he’s had experience on teams in his work as a telecommunications manager and in various volunteer roles.
He served on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission for eights years, and pushed to increase developer fees in Santa Clara to a level similar to surrounding cities. Those developer fees have helped repair the city’s aging parks, many of which Guerra said haven’t been touched for decades.
If elected, Gurerra wants to repair aging community buildings such as the swim center and prioritize upgrades to service buildings, like firehouses. He also said he’ll champion a plan to rebuild Santa Clara’s downtown to serve as an economic engine for the city.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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