Two long-standing San Jose residents with deep ties to District 6 face off for a seat on the San Jose City Council in one of the competitive races that could offset the balance between business- and labor-backed representation on the dais.
Local business owner and former mayoral candidate Michael Mulcahy returns to the political sphere against insurance agent and union adviser Olivia Navarro as both vie to replace outgoing Councilmember Dev Davis to represent a district that encompasses the neighborhoods west of downtown, including Willow Glen, West San Carlos and Fruitdale.
Despite coming up short in his first foray into politics in 2006, Mulcahy boasts one of the most extensive and varied backgrounds among the prospective newcomers to the City Council from not only running his family’s real estate investment firm but serving as one of the founding architect’s of Team San Jose – the city’s destination marketing arm — and previously leading the Willow Glen Business Association and Children’s Musical Theater San Jose. It is these experiences, he said, that have given him a bigger picture view and make him qualified to tackle San Jose’s hurdles with public safety, homelessness, and economic development.
“I felt like it was an incredible opportunity for me to take the 35 years of work experience I’ve had, being a third-generation San Josean and having that institutional memory,” Mulcahy said. “We have big problems and need experienced, smart people to solve them. My wife and I looked in the mirror and said, ‘This is the right thing to do.’ I have my family’s full support, and it’s super uplifting to know that we’re doing this for the right reasons.”
Navarro, who was born and raised in District 6 and has lived in several of its neighborhoods throughout her lifetime, has said that her experience as a community advocate and service as a neighborhood commissioner and on the Measure T Oversight Committee makes her ready to find solutions to the district’s obstacles and opportunities. She has identified public safety, job training, housing and blight reduction as her top priorities. Navarro did not respond to multiple interview requests from The Mercury News for this story.
Despite the strides the city has made to reduce crime, Mulcahy said it is still the top no. 1 issue on voters’ minds, which is why San Jose needs to invest more in its police department to get back to its previous perch as the safest big city. Along with hiring more police officers, Mulcahy said the city needs more community service officers so their law enforcement counterparts could focus on the city’s most pressing issues.
“There’s no question in my mind that as headcount comes up, we can have more coverage, less overtime and a less forced, unhealthy performance by our police department,” Mulcahy said. “Our team is overworked today, so headcount is important for a whole host of reasons. At the same time, we know it’s going to be hard to grow and we can’t lower our standards so we need to double down on technology and the tools they need so that they can be the most efficient, effective, smaller police force when we were considered the safest big city in America.”
As an ally of Mayor Matt Mahan, Mulcahy has also signed onto his plan to combat the homelessness crisis, which he said has been previously plagued by others’ “inaction and ineffective policies.”
Following the lead of other cities that have made significant progress, Mulcahy said the path forward is through building a combination of cost-effective interim housing solutions and connecting residents with treatment options and job training.
“We have to end this crisis of homelessness and there is no one answer,” Mulcahy said. “It’s everything from quick build housing to long-term investments in housing of all types and at all income levels to make sure that we’ve got enough stock to facilitate people at all levels.”
Perhaps where Mulcahy’s acumen most shines is as a business advocate.
He said he saw himself as an asset, with several areas of San Jose primed to follow Willow Glen’s lead and create business improvement districts to improve public safety, cleanliness, and market efforts.
While the proposed Tully Road District could be the first approved in more than 15 years and with several more in the pipeline, Mulcahy believed San Jose should grant these districts more leeway to operate and with businesses already footing the bill for these improvements, it did not make sense for the city to come in and take an additional fee.
Despite the district’s bountiful collection of assets — including the SAP Center, PayPal Park, the San Jose Mineta International Airport, Little Italy, and Willow Glen’s Lincoln Avenue — Mulcahy also said San Jose could do more to create economic opportunities and build more vibrant business districts.
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As a small business owner, he said he can relate to the pain red tape can cause after recently losing a prospective tenant because building and health permit submittals blew its budget.
“We as a city have to welcome the entrepreneurs back, and the way to do that is to make it easier for them to open, whether that’s by reducing fees or shortening the timelines,” Mulcahy said. “We’ve got to figure out how to lower the barrier for small businesses to get open. I know that it’s more important for cash registers to ring and people to bring home a paycheck than it is to force people into a process that can sometimes force them out of business because they can’t afford the city process and the demands that happen when you’re in the process.”