Islamic Society of East Bay Hosts Candidate Forum
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The Islamic Society of East Bay (ISEB) hosted a candidate forum on Saturday, October 2018 for the candidates of Fremont City Council and School Board.
Eleven candidates for the Fremont City Council and six candidates for the Fremont School Board attended the event sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA).
The event was part of CAIR’s drive to encourage the Muslim community to participate in the national political process.
The candidates debated affordable housing, economic development, homelessness and other issues during the public forum.
The audience had an opportunity to submit questions directly to the candidates.
The City of Fremont will have six new Council districts for future City Council elections starting in November 2018. The Mayor will continue to be elected at-large by all city voters. Under Fremont’s new district-based election system, voters may elect City Council candidates only from their district. This change to transition from at-large to district-based elections was adopted on June 13, 2017 by the City Council with an ordinance approving six new Council districts.
The City Council candidates included Rick Jones, Yang Shao, David Bonaccorsi, Jose Oropeza, Teresa Keng, Chandu Sirmadas, Debbie Watanuki, Jenny Kassan, Cullen Tieman, Justin Sha, and Craig Steckler.
One of the topics discussed was affordable housing which remains Fremont city’s largest challenge with rising home prices. Candidates were of the view that the city’s current efforts fall short of what is needed to address the problem to achieve affordable housing.
It was suggested that the city should utilize more inclusionary housing, which involves municipal ordinances requiring a certain percentage of new developments to be affordable for people with low to moderate incomes
One candidate said new housing developments are sprouting up all over the city which should be controlled as they were straining the City’s resources and causing horrible traffic congestion. It is estimated that the two-thirds of commuters responsible for this congestion neither live nor work in Fremont.
Hate crimes was another issue discussed at the candidate forum. Several candidates complained that they have received hate emails and their election placards were defaced.
The candidate touched on a swirl of hot-button issues in Fremont, including its perceived image of not being a business-friendly city, the proliferation high-density housing, pension reform, city finances, police and fire services.
School Board candidates included Niu Ng, Jerry (Hua)Li, Faria Khan, Dianne Jones, Larry Sweeney and Norman Howell.
The candidates concentrated on bullying in schools, shortage of teachers and inadequate facilities.
Since the cost of living is going up, many teachers are choosing to leave the district for jobs in other cities.
It was argued that as school populations become larger they begin to lose the sense of community and students are more likely to become victims of harassment, bullying or physical harms. The suggested solution was to challenge this trend through anti-bullying campaigns and inclusive community programs on campus.
The Candidates Forum was part of the CAIR-CA campaign for raising political awareness in the community. The California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) has issued a Voter Guide to help guide community members as they plan to vote in the November 6, 2018 elections.
The guide also contains recommendations on statewide ballot propositions. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, CAIR-CA cannot advocate for specific candidates for office, however it can endorse ballot propositions.
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