Meet Vivek Mohan, Candidate For Pleasanton City Council District 4

PLEASANTON, CA — Patch reached out to all candidates for Pleasanton Mayor and and City Council with identical questions. Here are the responses from Vivek Mohan, a candidate for Pleasanton's District 4. Responses have not been edited.

1. What is your personal, educational, and professional background?

This is a great question as it gets to the heart of this election. Many of the problems our city is facing are the same problems we were facing 4 or more years ago. They haven’t been fixed because of 2 reasons:

The city and the area are changing. We are no longer the backwaters of the Bay Area. In fact, we are slowly becoming the center of the Greater Bay Area, which includes Highway 5 and 99.

The people in office don’t have the background and experience necessary to fix the problems.

My educational experience includes: a B.A. from India, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Cal State University – East Bay, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. My career includes being an Executive Leader with large globally recognized companies as well as starting two smaller companies. In these roles I’ve had to manage budgets, deal with outside vendors, and make the difficult decisions to get the companies on a path of success.

We need a diverse set of skills and experiences to fix our current challenges and plan for a more vibrant future.

2. How long have you lived in Pleasanton?

I have lived with wife and raised my family in Pleasanton for over 12 years.3. What brought you here?

3. What brought you here?

My wife and I were living in Fremont and wanted to raise our family in a community that offered safe neighborhoods, great schools and a vibrant community. I imagine these are the things that attract many people to Pleasanton, and one of the main reasons I’m running for City Council as I see the promise of this version of Pleasanton fading if we don’t make the right decisions and take the correct actions now.

4. How have you been involved in the community?

Currently, I am serving on the City of Pleasanton Planning Commission. Prior to that, I was on our Housing Commission fighting to ensure that growth was managed properly and opposing projects that did not make sense to our community. This is an important distinction as my opponent who was on the same committee was the lone supporting vote (1-4) for a high-density project that was opposed by the Commission. I also advise a local non-profit, One Nation Dream Makers, that feeds the homeless and the under-privileged.

5. What do you feel are some of the biggest challenges facing the city?

First, and most importantly, we need to get our fiscal house in order before asking our citizens to give more of their hard-earned money. Our prosperity and rising home values have increased our tax revenues to where we bring in $220M in annual tax revenue ($150+ mn in General Budget). Cutting out waste, eliminating redundancies and expanding tax revenues from businesses should be our first order of business. A tax increase is the worst solution, and to compound the problem the proposal seems to lack the awareness of the financial pinch everyone is feeling right now with inflation.

Next would be securing the safety of our city. We have all seen and felt an increase in crime and criminal behavior in our neighborhoods and community. We need to make sure that all of our critical response partners (Police, Fire, Emergency Medical) have adequate staffing and resources to do their jobs effectively. Unfortunately, the capabilities of these services have been disrupted by current and past members of our city government.

6. What are your plans for addressing them?

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. For the past 3 elections,
candidates have talked about the same issues. So why have these not been fixed? We need to
pause, take stock of the underlying problems. Without that, we will keep doing the hamster wheel rounds while we slowly slip compared to our neighbors.

The 2 underlying issues are budget and skill sets. Lack of money is driving issues like safety,
overdue fix of safe drinking water. Skills and attitudes can be seen in the fact that we’ve let our budget shortfall build up. We also don’t have a clear sense of what we want to be in the future.

Safety and Essential Services: We need to staff more and pay competitive wages.

We need to cut our over-reliance on consultants, especially for non-technical projects. Far too often, consultants are being used for marketing pitches to ‘sell’ price and tax increases to our community. We have a great staff, and an extremely accomplished community. Let’s leverage their talents.

Businesses: we will build a plan to attract and retain businesses. These include both retail and innovative, fast growth businesses. This will be done in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce (including Downtown) and business leaders. We need a way to fill Hacienda Park. We will have a plan to make Pleasanton the innovation hub for next generation, sustainable industries. We already have a nucleus that we can build on.

We also need to strategically build housing stock for young families. Our schools are projecting a decline in enrollment. This will have a downward effect on our city’s finances and property values.

Pleasanton again needs to become the City of Planned Progress.

7. What makes you the best candidate?

Having the right experience at the right time. You don’t call an electrician if you need to fix a leaky faucet. Fixing the issues we are facing require someone who has:

• Managed and fixed large budget issues and understands financing on a deeper level
• Made critical personnel decisions ensuring the right people are in place
• Negotiated and managed 3 party vendors and contractors
• Led teams through times of change by motivating and bringing people together

Talking about ideas is great, but it’s no substitute for a track record of success. Pleasanton is at a critical juncture where the decision made today can determine if Pleasanton retains much of the charm and character that has drawn so many of us to live here. I’ve shown that I can lead large corporations through challenging times; emerging stronger and better positioned for the future. Our city’s future too important to trust to someone with no practical experience.

8. Outside of politics, what do you enjoy doing?

As a retired executive I’m unburdened by distraction of the career path grind; giving me the time to spend on the things I’m passionate about. What I enjoy most is spending time with family and friends as these two things are the biggest blessings in life. I’ve become an amateur barista; where I roast my own coffee beans and have been told I make a rather tasty cup of coffee. For my alone time I spend time riding my motorcycle on the beautiful back roads of the Livermore-Pleasanton wine country.

9. Any other comments?

To summarize, Pleasanton and the 680 corridors are in the middle of significant change. We need people with the skills and experience to steer the city and area through this change.

In addition, we also need to hold our leaders accountable for results and displaying the right
values. For too long, we have let them get away with promises without execution, and a gap
between their stated and demonstrated values.

I am at a point in life where I want to give back. I came to a wonderful place when I moved to the Bay Area 35+ years ago. That was done by people who came before us. I owe this place a debt of gratitude. The best way to repay this debt is to pay it forward. I would like to do my small bit to leave this place better for the future generations.

Reach out. Contact details are on my website, vivek4pleasanton.com Ask me tough questions.

Make informed choices. We, the voters, are the ones who are in control, but only if we exercise our power.

Last but not least, vote your conscience!