With budget shortfalls projected over the next couple of years, San Jose needs leaders who can unify behind pragmatic and cost-effective approaches to the city’s major challenges.
For the past two years, the City Council has been nearly evenly split between Mayor Matt Mahan and his moderate allies on one side and labor-backed councilmembers on the other.
The two factions have managed to compromise on key issues, like homelessness, affordable housing and downtown revitalization. But with the mounting budgetary challenges ahead, the city would benefit from a clearer direction of fiscal restraint.
Which is why the upcoming special election in District 3, encompassing most of downtown, is so important to all residents of San Jose. The balloting in this one district (one of San Jose’s 10 council districts) could provide Mahan with a clear council majority.
To keep the city of San Jose moving forward, District 3 voters should elect Matthew Quevedo because he is articulate, well-versed in city issues, ready to step in without a learning curve and, as Mahan’s deputy chief of staff, aligned with the mayor’s agenda, which we also generally support.
The first round of the special election will be held April 8. If no candidate garners a majority, the two top finishers in the seven-person field will move to a runoff on June 24.
This election was prompted by the Nov. 5 resignation of incumbent Omar Torres, who quit halfway through his term and hours before he was arrested on suspicion of child molestation. Unlike in 2023, when council members opted to fill two vacancies through an appointment process, this time they wisely left the decision to voters.
Voters should pick their representatives; the choice should not be made by councilmembers who live elsewhere. Especially when the council, and city residents, are so divided politically and the issues are so challenging.
San Jose faces a projected $60 million budget shortfall for the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year and an additional $30 million the following year.
Meanwhile, homelessness remains intractable. The most recent data, from 2023 as Mahan took office, showed that a surge in the number of people without homes had leveled off and even slightly declined. But the numbers — 6,266 homeless and more than 4,000 of those without shelter — remained unacceptably high.
Mahan has correctly placed an emphasis on quick-build interim solutions such as tiny homes, hotel rooms and safe parking sites rather than on permanent homeless housing that can take years to construct and cost as much as $1 million a unit.
As for housing for the rest of the population, the city needs more of it. But even though developers have entitlements to build more than 20,000 homes, they are sitting on the sidelines. At the same time, the city, like the rest of Silicon Valley, continues struggling with high pandemic-induced office vacancy rates — although there are recent signs of small improvement.
San Jose’s response to these policy challenges will be shaped by the District 3 election outcome.
Four candidates are running meaningful campaigns: Quevedo; San Jose Planning Commissioner Anthony Tordillos, a software engineer for Google-owned YouTube; Gabby Chavez-Lopez, the executive director of Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley who served two years on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission; and Irene Smith, a mediator and property manager for family owned rental housing units, who lost to Torres in the 2022 election by a margin of nearly 2-1.
The other three candidates are Philip Dolan, a salesman for a knife-sharpening company who has never attended a City Council meeting; retired Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Lt. Adam Duran, who has never run for office before nor lined up any endorsements; and Tyrone Wade, who has run two campaigns for mayor, garnering less than 3% of the vote in 2018 and 13% in 2024.
Of the seven candidates, Quevedo brings the most pragmatic and well-informed agenda. He shares Mahan’s goal of devoting the city’s limited homeless funding to interim housing rather than spending it on costly affordable housing units the city cannot afford.
He opposes new city taxes and, in discussions of budget cuts, wants to protect police funding as much as possible. He wants more city enforcement against owners of blighted downtown property and more incentives for housing construction.
In this race, Quevedo has the most policy and political experience — and the best approaches to solving San Jose’s problems. District 3 voters should elect him.