City Council Candidate for District 6

Jim Prola

A. Experience and History

1.  How long have you lived in San Leandro?

Thirty-one years.

2.  What is your current job and place of work, if any?

I'm a current San Leandro City Council member, after retiring as a water analyst from EBMUD.

3. What community, professional, and advocacy groups are you a member of?

- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
- California Democratic Central Committee delegate(2001-present)
- Alameda County Democratic Central Committee
- Hayward Demos Democratic Club
- 18th Assembly District Committee
- Federation of Retired Union Members (FORUM)
- California Alliance of Retired Americans--statewide legislative steering committee (CARA)
- Sierra Club -- San Leandro Endorsement

Committee member
- CAL Trout
- Center for Biological Diversity
- Defenders of Wildlife
- Nature Conservancy
- Friends of the River

4. With what political party, if any, are you registered?

Democrat for over 40 years.

5. In a one sentence answer, why are you running for office?

I am running for San Leandro City Council to improve the quality of life for families, and to make the city a better place to work and to do business.

6. What are the relevant skills, experience, or education that qualify you?

I feel that my experience on the job as the current City Councilmember from District 6 has
provided me with the relevant skills and knowledge of city issues, and my experience as a union negotiator has taught me how to bring people on different sides of an issue together for a common goal. My training as a lobbyist has not only taught me about the democratic process, but it has also given me the ability to effectively lobby bodies of government, which can be useful as a City Councilmember, who often has to lobby state and federal levels of government. Lastly, being an activist has not only familiarized me with the community and issues, it has also given me the passion for grassroots campaigning, which is going to be important in this election.

7. What are your top five accomplishments of the past 2 years?

-Passed a Living Wage.
-Balanced a budget with a 20% reserve.
-Incorporated "Smart Growth" principles in downtown development.
-Fought for more money for neighborhood street repair.
-Walked precincts and phone banked to help pass the successful Measure B School Bond.

B. Goals

8. What are your top 3 priorities, and what resources or programs would you advance to support them?

-I want to strengthen our partnerships with both school districts to ensure that educational needs are met during this time of financial crisis.
-I want to make sure that San Leandro has enough well-trained police officers and firefighters working in our city to ensure safety in our neighborhoods.
-I want to continue to pursue "Smart Growth" development to enhance our city by reducing car traffic and creating walkable neighborhoods.

9. Do you have any big ideas or visions for the future of the city?

I see a city that must work in partnerships, a city that maximizes its relationships between itself and both school districts, between business and labor, between public safety and our community,and between city services and our seniors and children. I see a city like a European city that has smart growth featuring mixed use development, with retail and commercial uses at street level and housing above. Working collaboratively will give us hope that we can get through the fiscal challenges that lie ahead.

C. Opportunities for Public Participation

10. How will you improve communications between residents and city government, and improve public participation in city government? 

I think we need to look at many different approaches to improve communications between residents and the city. We must make sure that our city is doing what it can to stay in touch with the many different ethnicities that call San Leandro home. We need to do better in making materials, our websites and other publications available in as many languages as possible. 

11. What will you do to get City Council meetings—and city boards and commissions—televised   and online, including transcripts, for public access? 

I will do what it takes because I think it is important for every resident of this community to stay informed and to stay involved.

12. What steps will you undertake to improve the transparency and quality of decision-making by the City of San Leandro?

In addition to what Question #11 above suggested, I have asked the city to expand the public notice mailing radius from 300 feet to 500 feet. I have also asked the city to have town hall meetings and public work sessions so the City Council can make decisions after public input.

D. Campaigning

13. List your top five endorsements.

Assemblymember Mary Hayashi, Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker, Mayor Tony Santos, Surlene Grant (dual) and Mike Katz, San Leandro School Board.

14. List your top five (in dollar amount) campaign contributors to-date.

$1500 from OE3, $1000 from Teamsters, $1000 from Carpenters, $1000 from Unite Here and $1000 from AFSCME.

15. What is your position regarding changing City Council elections from city-wide elections to district-wide elections? 

Ideally, I believe in district-wide elections. However, the voters of San Leandro chose city-wide
elections in a democratic process. Because it is difficult, in a multiple candidate race, for one candidate to achieve 50% + 1 vote, I think IRV, or ranked-choice, voting would save both the city and the candidates money.

16. What is your position regarding changing representation to be by race rather than by geographic location? 

I am opposed to this because I am opposed to discrimination of any kind based on race, religion, color, age, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, political affiliation or physical disability.

E. Schools

17. How will you promote joint collaboration projects between the city and public schools?

One of my skills is building coalitions between groups. I will utilize my relationships to promote collaboration between both school districts and city officials.

18. What do you see as the city's responsibility for the impact of new housing developments on schools?

Historically, the city has not done a good job of getting development projects to pay their fair share into the school districts. It is imperative that any future development pay the appropriate amount to mitigate the burden they place on our schools.

19.  What was your position on instituting a parcel tax to help pay for ongoing costs for the San Leandro Unified School District?

Not only did I support the last parcel tax, Measure A, but I volunteered many hours on the campaign. I will put even more time and effort into getting the next parcel tax passed.

F. Local Issues

20. Briefly state your ideas on how to encourage and protect local businesses development, including your position on enacting limits on chain businesses, and actions you would propose to accomplish your vision. 

Local business is the key to a thriving city. We must work with the Chamber to enhance our current
businesses, especially small businesses. We need to promote city sustainability by embarking on campaigns to encourage our residents to "Shop San Leandro" or "Buy Local".

In addition, we must work locally to recruit other businesses that residents want, offer assistance to citizens of our community that want to establish businesses in San Leandro, and promote the programs that our city has to offer.

Chain businesses are a problem. We must look at those applying for business licenses and develop a mechanism for limiting operations, based on a calculation of population and/or radius. If we over-saturate our community with chain stores, we will lose out on the small town atmosphere.

Working to identify what our community wants is an aggressive approach that I would like to work on
with our Community Development Staff.

21. How would proposed to implement the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) vision, given the insufficient resources and interest? 

I believe there is interest and there will be sufficient resources. Transit-oriented development is vital to smart growth and sustainable cities. We will be successful in this vision because developers recognize it as an immediate and future trend.

22. What are your thoughts and plans about getting a quality business in the old Albertson’s site?

There are two developers now who want to buy and develop the site, but the current owner refuses to sell. This matter is currently in litigation.

23. John Jermanis has intimated that he wants to retire. How would you go about appointing a new City Manager? 

I would favor an open process, involving a national search, to be sure we have the best possible applicants to interview. 

24. What would you do in office to address poverty and homelessness in San Leandro?

I have been called the "patron saint of affordable housing" by the San Leandro Times. I'm in favor of increasing inclusionary zoning in San Leandro from 15% to 20%. Years ago I helped bring the Women's and Children's Shelter to San Leandro. In the last year I have contributed part of my Community Empowerment Funds to Building Futures with Women and Children for their "safe house", and I contributed the remainder to Davis Street Family Resource Center for holiday food baskets (which I helped distribute.)

25. What would you do to improve public transportation and make San Leandro more conducive to walking?

I want to incorporate smart growth policies that create walkable neighborhoods. Making our neighborhoods more walkable has a number of impacts on our community. It makes them safer, keeps them clean, and helps to develop a strong sense of community.

26. How would you promote opportunities within San Leandro for minorities and other historically-disadvantaged populations? 

Perhaps developing a task force to analyze why minorities and other disadvantaged populations have
not been afforded the opportunities is one way to help reduce that gap. I would like to work with this group to develop a strategy to ensure that this does not occur any longer.

27. Do you think the City Council should ban the use of styrofoam containers and plastic shopping bags in San Leandro? Why or why not? 

Yes, and the reason is simple--to protect our environment.

28. What would you do to decrease crime in San Leandro?

The answer to this question is, first, to analyze the types of crimes being committed. Second, work with homeowners' associations and other community groups to improve our Neighborhood Watch program. Third, hire more sworn officers to be assigned where needed. Two officers I feel are especially needed are a Community Crime Prevention Officer, and another officer for the midnight shift.(Right now there are only 6 officers to cover 7 nighttime beats.)

29. Briefly state your position on the use of eminent domain.

I am opposed to Proposition 98, but in favor of Proposition 99. This puts me in the company of most cities, environmental groups and labor. 

G. Summary

Please state why San Leandrans should vote for you.

San Leandro residents should vote for me because I love this city. I have the experience to move this city forward, the leadership to make it happen, and the knowledge to be effective. My wife and I have called San Leandro home for 31 years, raising a family here, and also being involved every step of the way, from coaching youth sports to volunteering my time at various non-profits. I am proud to call San Leandro my home and will do what I can to make everyone else equally as proud.