Sam Liccardo’s Statement on Re-Election Campaign

Our world has changed dramatically since I announced my campaign for Mayor four years ago. Our nation now daily endures a spate of frenzied rhetoric emphasizing all that divides us, while public civility and trust in our national institutions continues to deteriorate.

But here in San Jose, I’ve seen something else.

I’ve seen that our diversity makes us stronger, our differences invite better ideas and our respect for each other enables collective success. From pension reform to public safety, from our city budget to our city roads, we’ve found common ground to move forward in my first two years in office:

• We’ve settled pension reform battles to accelerate the rebuilding of the San Jose Police Department, while preserving the savings to taxpayers from prior reforms;
• We’ve partnered with employers to provide jobs to more than two thousand youth living in gang-impacted neighborhoods;
• We’re repaving more streets than at any time in two decades, and making critical investments in BART, CalTrain and other traffic-relieving transit;
• We’ve worked with a half-dozen surrounding cities to lift the minimum wage;
• We’ve collaborated with business leaders to make SJC the fastest-growing airport in the nation, launching dozens of new domestic and international flights;
• We’ve worked to attract dozens of new employers, bringing thousands of high-wage jobs;
• We’ve partnered with our schools to launch after-school learning programs for children living in sixteen of our poorest neighborhoods and we’ve expanded hours in every library branch to six days per week;
• We’ve worked with the City Council to unanimously pass a balanced budget in each of the last three years, while maintaining the best credit rating of any major city in California;
• We’ve made San Jose the largest U.S. city to launch “Community Choice Energy” in 2018, enabling our residents to choose greener and less expensive sources of electricity;
• We’ve crafted a “Smart City Vision” to make City Hall more responsive, such as by bringing dozens of permit processes online, and by launching My San Jose, an easy-to-use app for city service requests; and
• We’ve worked with non-profit partners and Santa Clara County to reduce veteran and chronic homelessness, rehabilitate deteriorating motels to low-cost apartments and build new affordable housing units for hundreds of our poorest neighbors.
• Together, we are proving that we can stand together. To a bitterly divided nation, we offer a new narrative: a Tale of One City. As we demonstrate the collective success of our One City, we reveal the power of collaboration to improve our communities and to shape our world.

I’m running for re-election to continue the progress we’ve made together in building a safer, stronger San Jose and to continue to unite our city around our shared values and goals.

I hope you’ll join me in this effort. Sign up to show your support and get updates on how we can work together to continue to make progress on the issues facing our city. Your support has been instrumental in this effort, and I thank you for standing with me.

We’ve come a long way, but there’s more to do – much more to do. Although we’ve implemented an inclusionary housing program that will generate millions of dollars for rent-restricted housing construction annually, we have more to do to make San Jose affordable.

Although we’ve launched a San Jose Promise program with our community colleges to eliminate financial barriers for 800 low-income college students this year, we have more to do to lift the opportunities and aspirations of our youth.

Although we’ve launched #BeautifySJ with services such as free junk pickup to residents and a “rapid response” team to address illegal dumping, we have more to do to care for our neighborhoods.

Although we’ve recruited our largest police academy class in a decade, we have more to do to make our neighborhoods safer.

Although we’ve brought world-class employers to San Jose, creating new good-paying jobs, we have more to do to broaden opportunities throughout our city.

We’ve taken important steps to get here, but we have more to do, as One City, to harness our tremendous energy and talents to enable everyone to thrive.

I’m running for re-election to continue our work together. I hope you’ll sign up to join us today.