On Sept. 27, six Santa Clara mayoral candidates revisited problems that have outlived several city councils: council dynamics, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers, the still-unbuilt Related Companies project, downtown redevelopment and data centers. The forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters Santa Clara/San José, the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and San José Spotlight. Candidates had 60 to 90 seconds for answers.

Candidates Karen Hardy, Kevin Park and Kathy Watanabe have served on the council, stressing institutional knowledge and voting records.

The candidates who haven’t served on council, Gary Ferraris, David Kertes and Mike Wiltberger, pointed to other experience: Ferraris as a longtime city employee, and Kertes and Wiltberger as business managers.

Council Dysfunction

The forum opened with a question on council dynamics, and it wasn’t long before those dysfunctional dynamics were on display. Park answered the question by pointing to a chair that doesn’t respect “either the public or the other council members.”

Watanabe followed by saying dysfunction started in 2020.* That election, she said, “is where you can see where the divisiveness starts to take place and has gone downhill since then.” An ethics commission was needed, she said.

Hardy recounted that friends had called her “the grownup in the room,” and credited a new city manager and city attorney for calmer meetings. The other candidates said that the council needed to ensure that everyone was respectful

Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers

Levi’s Stadium and 49ers influence are a longstanding council dispute. To untangle routine stadium management from politics, Park and Wiltberger separately proposed replacing the council as the stadium board with a professional management board.

Hardy, Kertes, Park and Watanabe said the 49ers should stay out of city elections; Park said that 49ers management asked him to drop out. He also said that 49ers should “stop choosing our candidates,” while noting that PAC spending in city elections began with the police union PAC. 

Watanabe said she told 49ers CEO Al Guido that she was the best candidate and asked him to “call off his dogs.” When he refused, she held a rally outside the stadium demanding transparency.

Related Companies Northside Project

Since 2016, Related Companies has had a development agreement for 240 acres of vacant land across the street from Levi’s Stadium. Significant parts of the development should have been built by now, but so far no construction has started.

Watanabe blamed lawsuits, COVID, and “financing” for delays, nonetheless expressed optimism about the project. She said she had “every confidence” the development would be everything “and more” than agreed to. She noted that Related paid the city about $850,000 in lease payments, and is looking at “AI manufacturing, which is going to bring in good jobs and business into the city.”

Related was approved two years before she joined the council, Hardy said. There wasn’t a lot the city can do now about the project because of the agreement that was signed.

“We are bound to that and it is frustrating,” she said, adding “they are having trouble with their financing.”

Because Related changed its plan to light industrial, Kertes said, Silicon Valley Power  had “to redo its plan for getting power to the site.” Electricity won’t be on the site until the end of 2028, putting construction out until 2029. He would get the city manager, SVP and Related “to sit down in a room” until “we understand what are the roadblocks.”

Park objected to Related’s light industrial plan, saying data centers didn’t belong in entertainment districts, and noting that the promised Fire Station 10 has yet to be built. Wiltberger and Ferraris said they wanted it started, but didn’t know what the holdup was.

Data Centers

Hardy has made a data center moratorium the centerpiece of her campaign. She was tired, she said, of people saying, “we need to look at it … I was the one that put it on the agenda. If I were the mayor, I could [have] done it directly,” but as a council member she has to get the council concurrence to put it on the agenda.

Park is an outspoken opponent of more data centers, saying that he’s the only council member voting against them.

“Our rates keep going up … because we keep having to build out infrastructure for the data centers,” said Park.

Wiltberger said a moratorium wasn’t needed. Ferraris said they should be treated like any other development. Data centers brought the city $34 million last year, said Watanabe, agreeing with Kertes that data center companies should pay for infrastructure they need.

Downtown

Watanabe and Hardy talked about work underway, while the newcomers pointed to delays.

Watanabe said an RFP was coming to the council “shortly” and the council should consider waiving fees to encourage development. Hardy noted that the city is in negotiation with Santa Clara University “to swap some land with them to make a bigger piece of property that the city will own from Lafayette to Benton and Homestead.”

The city should get started, Wiltberger said, and “maybe knock down that huge building on the corner of Homestead in Lafayette.” Ferraris said he would “roll up my sleeves and find out what the holdups are.”  Kertes would “hold a city manager accountable” because “this RFP needs to happen now.” He also endorsed incentives for developers.

The city “didn’t capture” a lot of the spending during the 2026 games, Park said, because it had no downtown for people to gather.

*Mayor Lisa Gillmor lost the council majority in 2020.

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