San Ramon mayoral candidates debate housing, budget and more in election forum

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The two candidates in this year’s race for the mayor’s seat in San Ramon made a joint appearance Wednesday in an election forum at Bishop Ranch in which redevelopment of the large swath of land in the city’s central core was just one of many points of disagreement between the opponents.

District 2 City Councilmember Mark Armstrong and entrepreneur and political newcomer Chirag Kathrani appeared before a crowd of dozens of community members for the evening forum moderated by DanvilleSanRamon and co-hosted by the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce in the Roundhouse Conference Center.

The race to be the city’s next mayor is wide open this year following the decision of current mayor and longtime councilmember Dave Hudson not to seek reelection. While Armstrong announced his candidacy earlier in the year, the race did not take shape as a competitive one until Kathrani emerged as a candidate at the last minute during a deadline extension for candidacy filing that was in place with no incumbent seeking the seat.

During the forum, Kathrani sought to differentiate himself from Armstrong and foster debates over major topics in the city including the redevelopment of Bishop Ranch, housing, budgeting civic engagement and the proposed 1% sales tax increase also on the ballot in November.

“I’m a candidate for mayor right now – while everybody says it’s an opportunity, I would say getting this opportunity itself is wrong in the first place,” Kathrani said in his opening statement. “If the mayor race is running unopposed, then there’s some fundamental problem on our city council.”

In addition to the lack of other candidates in the race, Kathrani said he was concerned that the sitting councilmembers had endorsed Armstrong as mayor, noting that if elected, Armstrong would be departing his council seat prior to the expiration of his current term in 2026, making way for the council to potentially appoint his successor rather than the public elect them. 

“They are only running for extra power,” Kathrani said. “I’ll bring a new voice to the community, to the residents, to the San Ramon City Council.”

For his part, Armstrong sought to present himself as ready and eager to take the reins from Hudson, with more than four years of experience on the City Council as well as months-long period as active mayor while Hudson was out on leave following a stroke early last year.

“I’ve gotten to understand what you love about our city, about the quality of life that you enjoy,” Armstrong said. “I’ve gotten to learn about some of the concerns you have. And I believe I’m the right person at the right time to help you to maintain that quality of life for you and your family. And I look forward to your questions.”

The first of those questions was about Measure N, the proposed 1% sales tax increase that the City Council voted unanimously to place on November’s ballot following months of budget discussions, millions of dollars in cuts across the city’s department in this year’s budget and a looming structural deficit projected to grow in the coming years.

Armstrong pointed to his ongoing support for the measure and vote in favor of placing it on the ballot as a councilmember earlier in the year.

“There was a good reason for that,” Armstrong said. “We had been going through all of our budget workshops and our budget meetings. We had been working to do, as we do every year, to balance our budget, but we’ve got a structural deficit.”

He pointed to relatively flat revenues alongside increasing expenses as the heart of the city’s financial challenges, along with city surveys that show residents don’t want to see additional spending cuts.

“Residents were very clear about what was important to them –  roads, good parks, a safe city, a strong police force – and the residents don’t want drastic cuts,” Armstrong said. “They like what we’ve got in the city of San Ramon. They like our quality of life, and without Measure N passing – and that should lead to about a $16 million addition to our revenues to help make up for a $17.6 million deficit that we had to make up on balancing the budget.”

Armstrong warned that should the measure fail to pass, residents could face “even more drastic cuts”.

“That’s not what you want, but you’re going to have the opportunity as voters to weigh in on Nov. 5,” Armstrong said. “If that’s important to you, then I certainly hope that you’ll support it.”

Kathrani, who had also critiqued the measure in his opening statement that evening, was vocal in his opposition for the measure, and said that should it fail in November the city would “probably need to tighten our belts” and take other measures such as increasing developer fees and reducing spending to address the deficit.

“There are other expenses which I saw are extremely high in the City Council,” Kathrani said. “If you can fix those expenses, we can still have a balanced budget. If you see from 2020 to 2023, the inflation is 17%. But the city expenses have gone up by 31%. So there is an area where we could have improvement.”

Nonetheless, the two candidates were mostly on the same page when asked about where public safety sits on their list of priorities, voicing their commitment to avoiding cuts to the San Ramon Police Department, which saw the elimination of funding for unfilled positions as part of the cuts in the current fiscal year’s budget. Police services continue to be the city’s top general fund expense, making up 31% – or $19.6 million – of the $63.3 million of general fund spending in this year’s adopted budget.

“I believe that our police force should be well-trained, well-funded – fully funded – well-equipped, and have all the resources they need to do their job,” Armstrong said. 

He added that a $5.6 million state grant to combat organized retail theft has “gone a long way to bring additional officers to the police force,” and that the city has invested in technology including automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and drones that “keep our citizens safe”.

“The most serious crimes have remained consistent over about the last 10 years, and we can continue to make things even better and safer in the city of San Ramon,” Armstrong said.

Kathrani noted that residents’ concerns over public safety were prevalently highlighted on Nextdoor, and called for additional community engagement efforts on the matter.

“There’s something called citizen policing as well,” Kathrani said. “We need to introduce those ideas inside the community because if the people in the community feel safe, then only, they will be more happy in the city as such. So I don’t recommend any budget cuts on police and public safety.”

However, the two candidates’ opinions diverged once again when they were asked for their thoughts on the ongoing redevelopment of Bishop Ranch and the city’s review process for projects on the 585-acre swath of land owned by Sunset Development, which has served primarily as office space over the course of the city’s incorporated history.

“Making townhouses, I think it’s not the right place to have it in the core of the city because the core of the city should be more condominiums and filled up with the people around,” Kathrani said.

He added that while the city is in need of a downtown, he does not see City Center currently serving as the hub of that central district in the way city officials and developers envision via ongoing projects including the CityWalk Master Plan, which Kathrani said he opposes.

“We really need a downtown where people can hang around, a much bigger place than City Center,” Kathrani said. 

Armstrong said that he wholeheartedly supported ongoing and future efforts to redevelop the city’s central core with mixed-use projects that would seek to both create a downtown district and to help the city fulfill the new housing San Ramon is required to accommodate by the state. In particular, he noted that redeveloping the former office spaces into housing would mean less development in other parts of the city. 

“Housing in the city core area around Bishop Ranch will do one great thing: It will help us to protect our neighborhoods,” Armstrong said. “And that’s really important. In talking to you as  residents, you want to live In a neighborhood with a safe environment, great parks, good access to good schools, not a lot of traffic. And by focusing in the city core area, we’re able to put that housing down there.”

Other topics addressed in the forum included economic development, traffic congestion and safety, and the city’s relationship with other agencies including the fire, school, and utilities districts. A full video of the discussion is also available on the DanvilleSanRamon.com YouTube page.

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