Diablo Gazette reached out to the four candidates running for Clayton City Council this November. We posed six questions and asked that they keep their total responses to a maximum of 250 words.
As it goes in candidate debates, some went long, except candidate Ed Miller. By email he responded, “I appreciate that you reached out to me regarding this opportunity. Unfortunately, I can’t submit written responses that could be edited without my final review. These questions address important and complex issues in our community which deserve equally thoughtful, complete, and uncensored answers. Hopefully we can do something different at a later date, but for now, I will refer you to my candidate statement at https://TrustED4Clayton.com/about/ .” His answers below are statements gleaned from his website that our publisher thought best addressed each question. Thank you to all the participants. May the best candidates succeed this November.
- What do you feel are the most important issues facing Clayton?
- What is your primary interest in being a Clayton City Councilmember?
- Do you feel there is a lack of trust among residents with Clayton’s elected officials? If so, what would you do to restore community trust?
- This year, the City of Clayton faced a structural budget deficit of approximately $120,000. What would you support in order to balance the budget going forward.
- There have been complaints about City maintenance issues. How would you address these issues?
- The State has mandated that Clayton must plan for 570 new affordable homes. How would you address this State mandate?
I am incredibly grateful to the people of Clayton who have allowed me to serve as their Councilmember over the last four years. I am an active CPA working in private industry, the Treasurer of my small HOA, an East Bay native, and a Clayton resident for the past 13 years.
It has been a great experience meeting and talking to folks around town and doing my best to represent my fellow Claytonians. While I am only one of five Councilmembers, I’m proud to have shepherded quality of life improvements at Regency and Rialto, improvements to traffic and pedestrian safety near our schools, and helped increase transparency in communications and community engagement.
I am running for re-election to ensure the Council listens to the residents they represent and to preserve the character and charm of our city. We need strong organizational leadership for Clayton to continue to be a wonderful place to live and raise a family.
Q2. I love our city and I first ran for office and am running for re-election because I feel like I can make a difference. In getting to know so many folks around town, a common refrain is that people didn’t feel like they are being represented by the Council. I want to continue to serve in order to give those peo-ple a voice, to ensure that the Council listens to the residents they represent.
Q3. People should always be skeptical of their elected representatives as part of a healthy society. Building trust requires transparency – communicating why certain choices are made, and what tradeoffs there are with every decision.
I publish information before and after every meeting regarding what is going to be discussed and the rationale for every decision I make. I want it to be as easy as possible for residents to know what is happening and why.
Q4.The first thing we need to do is understand what we are spending money on. Earlier this year staff told the Council it costs $1,600/day to run our fountain. But when I pressed on how that could be, it turned out staff didn’t know the basis for that figure. We can’t be effective if we don’t have accurate information.
Once we’ve done the analysis, we need to prioritize the services the city provides and perform them as efficiently as possible. Low priority services should be cut. Increasing taxes on our residents should only be an absolute last resort.
Q5. The first step is understanding what is being done because I’ve heard too many times that it doesn’t seem like we’re doing enough on the maintenance front. I’ve been requesting for years that the city publish a list or schedule of activities so that residents can know what they should expect and when, and we as city leaders could hold people accountable if work is not performed sufficiently. This hasn’t happened, and it’s unclear both what is being done, and what the expectation of what should be done actually is.
Q65. It is critical that the city remains in compliance with all state laws. Recently the city submitted its first draft of an updated Housing Element which includes provisions for the required number of units. While 570 is the total, only a portion of those are required to be low income or very low income (267, or 47% of our RHNA requirement). If the State accepts our submission, then we would have already met the state mandate and no further increase to zoning would be required for the 6th cycle 2023-2031.
I am running for city council because I want to help foster cooperation, increase efficiency, and unify the past, present, and future visions of Clayton.
My goals are to utilize my unique perspective of the old and the new to meet our challenges as a team, to streamline city operations to keep the city fiscally responsible, and to come together to enact a vision embodying the best of Clayton.
I have been a government employee for almost 25 years.
I grew up on the border of Clayton near Pine Hollow and spent my entire youth with my friends in Clayton. I graduated from Clayton Valley High School. I am a member of the Clayton Valley Academic and Athletic Halls of Fame. I moved back to Clayton with my husband and children 18 years ago. Both our sons graduated from Clayton Valley Charter High School.
I am an attorney I attended UCSD undergrad and Berkeley School of Law for law school.
Q2. I want to help foster cooperation, increase efficiency, and unify the past, present, and future visions of Clayton. My goals are to utilize my unique perspective of the old and the new to meet our challenges as a team, to streamline city operations to keep the city fiscally responsible, and to come together to enact a vision embodying the best of Clayton.
Q3 .I personally do not feel there is a lack of trust among residents with Clayton’s elected officials. Maintaining transparency and communication is the most important way to instill trust in elected officials.
If elected, I will encourage the formation of community-led committees that can discuss various issues, identify possible solutions, and report back to the Council for public resolution. This process will hopefully foster transparency and create unity in Clayton by allowing residents to collaborate on issues that affect our city.
Q4. As our town has rapidly grown in the last few decades, our expenses have risen and outpaced our revenues. As a member of the city council, I will look for long-term solutions to ensure that our city has the fiscal stability not only for its immediate needs as well as establish a workable plan for the future of Clayton’s fiscal well-being.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution and the answer could include a combination of increasing revenues and limiting expenses.
I will not rule out any potential solution, and any future decision will be made with the transparency and communication necessary to instill confidence in the Clayton residents that I am doing what is best for Clayton.
Q5. Part of planning for the city’s future fiscal sustainability includes modernizing our city operations as well as recruiting and retaining city staff.
If the city operations are streamlined, the staff will have the time and infrastructure in place to create a plan for prioritizing and scheduling maintenance issues.
Q6. I remember when Main Street was the only way to get through town. There was no Clayton Library, Oakhurst Country Club and Golf Course; no homes in Keller Ridge and Stranahan; and no Grove Park.
Had there been the resistance to all development back then that we see today, many of these welcome additions might have remained unrealized. Development is not a binary act; it is neither all “good” nor all “bad.”
The planning commission and city council have submitted a draft housing element that incorporates the city’s goal of providing 570 new homes, less than half of which are required to be for low or very low-income groups. If elected, I will only approve a final housing element that complies with our legal, state-mandated requirements.
Website: billeter4claytoncitycouncil.com. Email: billeter4claytoncitycouncil@admin
My primary objective for running for Council is to move the City towards fiscal responsibility in order to maintain the quality of life that we all enjoy in Clayton.
I am currently involved with a number of business and civic organizations including the East Bay Leadership Council (Board of Directors), Diablo Valley College Business Advisory Board, CBCA, Save Mount Diablo and Soroptimist International of Diablo Vista.
I also earned a spot on the East Bay Leadership Council’s “Build the Bench” candidate training program several years ago and have worked on a number of campaigns since then.
I am a small business owner, specializing in strategic marketing and development and I have over a decade of experience working for a REIT.
My expertise in all of these fields makes me uniquely qualified for Clayton City Council. I earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Seton Hall University in 1982.
Q2. To move the City forward financially and improve City maintenance and landscaping.
Q3. There is a real lack of trust of Clayton’s elected officials, evident in the $30,000 survey (the City contracted with an outside consultant to conduct the survey) which clearly stated that the residents of Clayton do not trust their local officials.
My goal if elected is to bring the residents back to the table, into the discussion about the current and future state of our City that will include truthful and accurate reporting and information from City officials.
Q4. In my career, I have managed budgets larger than the City’s and when facing a budget deficit one must always go through the budget, line item by line item, or “scrub” the budget, in order to make possible cuts, determine if services can be outsourced, mutualize expenses, do more with the current staff before adding additional staff, identify additional revenue generating resources – anything to avoid increasing taxes.
Q5. We need to address the lack of strong leadership and understand why the City is struggling to keep up with these issues.
Is it a lack of resources or staffing? Is it the need for a preventative maintenance software program that would allow us to prioritize tasks, ensure accountability and response times for completing those tasks? Do we need to outsource some of these responsibilities?
The City clearly needs a comprehensive mapping of the entire City in order to identify all of these issues, schedule the repairs/replacements, and then create a strategy that stays on top of these problems before they become an issue. We need to be proactive not reactive.
Q6. The City’s responsibility is to provide the State with the zoning for 570 new affordable homes and I believe that has been completed and already sent to the State for their review. Until the State replies to the housing element, we all have to understand that mandated housing does not mean that all zoning sites will be developed, and this process could take years to complete.
Developers are cash-strapped right now, building supplies are very expensive and there is clearly a shortage of workers to build this housing. We also need to identify locations for high density housing in areas that are closer to main arteries near transportation and jobs.
Living in Clayton for nearly 20 years, my wife and I have grown to love this community and are thrilled to be raising our three kids here.
I see the opportunities we share as well as the challenges that we face together, as citizens of this unique community.
I have served Clayton through many local committees and organizations, including as vice-chairman of the Planning Commission, chair of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority’s Citizens Advisory Committee, a den leader of Cub Scout Pack 262, an assistant Scoutmaster of Scout Troop 317, referee for AYSO soccer, and a volunteer at numerous activities as a CBCA member and for local schools.
Clayton deserves independent leadership that will reunite every group in our community to see past differences and work together to preserve and build upon the safety, natural beauty, harmony, and small-town charm we all love, expect, and deserve.
We can do it if we restore the public trust on all sides by working transparently, as non-partisans, and as teammates rather than competing factions, for the benefit of all residents.
Q2. I see the opportunities we share as well as the challenges that we face together, as citizens of this unique community.
Clayton deserves independent leadership that will reunite every group in our community to see past differences and work together to preserve and build upon the safety, natural beauty, harmony, and small-town charm we all love, expect, and deserve.
Q3. [Implied Yes] We restore the public trust on all sides by working transparently, as non-partisans, and as teammates rather than competing factions, for the benefit of all residents.
Friends and co-workers alike describe me as someone who listens to all opinions with interest, kindness, and respect. When it comes time to make a decision, I try to make it objectively, based upon the data available.
Q4. I will work hard to keep local government accountable in its spending and all issues of importance to this community.
Q5. N/A This question is not specifically addressed on candidate website at time of print deadline..
Q6. It takes time to learn the structure and rules of public service in California. I have served on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority’s Citizens Advisory Committee since 2019, and was elected as its chairperson for two of those three years. As I realized how closely transportation and housing issues are related, I applied to serve on the Clayton Planning Commission in early 2021, to use my expertise for our citizens, right at the start of the latest eight-year cycle of the complex and crucial Regional Housing Needs Allocation.