Tuesday, November 18, 2008

last updated: October 08, 2008 03:34:58 PM

There are four candidates vying for two Patterson City Council seats: Dominic Farinha, Jeff Realini, Victor Slonksnis and Annette Smith. All but Slonksnis answered questions on pressing issues related to the November election, including growth and West Park. Slonksnis chose not to participate in The Bee's campaign coverage.

Why are you running?

DOMINIC FARINHA: I'm running because I really enjoy living in Patterson, being a citizen and seeing it evolve. I want to make sure it stays on the right track. I want to see the general plan finished and the city handles West Park in the right way. I want to see more appropriate retail business come in so we have a stable economic base and providing businesses to help keep people in Patterson.

JEFF REALINI: I don't like what I've been seeing in town as far as leadership goes. There's talk in the administration about serving the people, but I'm seeing a tendency more geared to developers and large landowners. I want to see more services for the regular Joe. Nobody wanted to run, so I did.

ANNETTE SMITH: I enjoy the work, it's something I always wanted to do. I have been attending council meetings since early 2000, keeping up with the issues and voicing my opinions. Even as a teen growing up in Campbell, I spoke at the podium the first time when I was 17. It's a way to give back. You want to be part of the process of what shapes and molds the community.

What are the biggest issues facing Patterson?

FARINHA: First, overall growth, or growth in an appropriate fashion. Second is West Park, and third maybe water.

REALINI: Services for regular Joe citizen. Parks and recreation is limited. There are events, but as far as regular day-to-day activities, there aren't any. There's a limit to the amount of retail, I'd like to see incentives for shops to open up.

SMITH: We have a number of issues, they don't come and go with the campaign. Water has to be No. 1. A lot of cities in the state want it. How are we going to address the future? Not just the quantity but the quality and the delivery. We need to address it not just as a city but as a region. The next large issue for us is West Park. We are working to minimize the impacts of that project, the public safety and quality of life issues can't be ignored.

How do you intend to deal with them?

FARINHA: Water, I think with all new development we have to make sure there is a water source. In the past cities built with the presumption that water would be there. We cannot go about development in the same way. West Park, if the project comes to fruition, to ameliorate factors we believe will emanate from the project. The city council I hope will go forward with the same or stronger stance. General plan growth, as the city planning goes forward, make sure we don't just color a map, this goes here, that goes there. It's almost like a chess game, very intricate and time-consuming. We want to make sure the right development goes into the right places.

REALINI: Incentives. I prefer more carrots than sticks. There's a large amount of vacant real estate, both retail and residential. Carrots for owner-occupied homes, sticks for people leaving homes vacant, not taking care of the property. Not fines, but the city going in to take care of the property. Retail, a lot of retail people are not renting out. I don't know if they are waiting for the market to come back. We can reduce taxes. If a building is vacant for a long time, some negative incentive to get someone in there. I would like to bring the police back into town, rather than have an outsourced group. We've just signed a contract (with the sheriff's department), so that would have to be in my second term.

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