January 12, 2007

Dave Cortese: New vice mayor

District 8 Councilman takes on additional role

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

Last year Dave Cortese was one of five candidates for mayor. This year he’s the only candidate for vice mayor.

Dave Cortese (Photo by Jeff Frazee)

The District 8 councilman, who represents the Evergreen area, was asked by new Mayor Chuck Reed to serve as the council’s second in command. And, although no vote has yet been taken to approve that appointment, many fellow council members and some of the staff and public already are calling him Mr. vice mayor.

The vote will be taken on Jan. 23, and everyone expects Cortese to be confirmed. It’s typically one of those times when the council defers to the mayor.

As for Cortese, he’s ready and willing to do the job, “obviously my heart is into it, since I was interested in the job of mayor. I have the best interests of the city in mind, and the position creates an opportunity for me to get more involved in citywide issues as well as District 8 issues,” he said in an interview with the Times.

One reason he thinks he can help the mayor is that the two men dovetail on issues. There are some things in which Reed has little to no experience where Cortese excels and vice versa. In fact, Reed told the Times during an interview prior to the November election that he wanted his vice mayor to provide experience in areas where Reed is not an expert. That, he said, is one way to build consensus, by drawing on other council members’ strengths.

Experience
Cortese offers several areas of expertise. For example, the councilman has four to six years of experience in several areas such as the VTA board, the Santa Clara County Citizen Association and the Bay Area Governments.

“I’ve been on the VTA board for six years now. It’s an area where Mayor Reed doesn’t have that much experience and I can assist him and be of service to the city,” Cortese said.

He recently served a one-year term as president of the Santa Clara County City Association. He’s been on the group’s executive board for five years.

“I’ve developed relationships with elected officials from the 14 other cities in the county. These are people that Chuck Reed hasn’t spent that much time with. The mayor wants to nurture those relationships. I can help increase positive relationships for him [through my experience with them]. It’s great for San Jose and it’s great for the county’s other cities.”

Cortese also has been an active city liaison to the Bay Area Governments group. He’s been chosen to be president of this organization for a two-year term. He feels he really can help the mayor by his work in this group, which works out regional issues, including some legislature that is important to San Jose.

“I have a level of experience that I’ve been working on for six years, Mayor Reed has his own credentials where I haven’t spent a lot of time. Our experiences are complimentary to each other and I think that can only be good for the city.”

Consensus
Cortese said the new mayor wants to be collaborative. Even before the new council met last Tuesday, the two already had been meeting and discussing transition issues of regional significance.

“As long as Mayor Reed wants a collaborative relationships, it allows me to make positive contributions,” added Cortese.

He sees a big part of his job as bringing the city council together. No one agrees with everything another person does, he said, but it’s important that when council members share good ideas to get these noticed.

“We won’t always agree even when we share good ideas. My job is to be positive and healing. I’m excited; it’s the kind of work I like to do. I’m a mediator, professionally and personally.

“I know that doesn’t sound like what I’ve been doing during my term. I was critical of the previous mayor. But I never abandoned my notion of being a team player. I naturally gravitate toward being a team player and bringing people together. That’s what I’m most positive about.”

Goals
One of his main goals is to bring “healing back to the city in general.” He hopes to help return the city, the council and city hall to a positive climate. “This is really important,” he said. “Scandal caused sharp differences on the council and it tore apart employee and council member morale. I want to bring back that collaborative spirit.”

Another goal is to support the mayor, he said, and many of the goals he’s reaching for are the same ones as the mayor and the same ones that he cited throughout his candidacy.

“I’m for ethical, open and transparent government. The key to that is getting the Reed Reforms adopted [which happened at the Jan. 9 council meeting]. I’m interested in land use and lobbyist reforms, “ he added, ”and restoring fiscal restraint while going back to the San Jose tradition of prioritizing essential needs.”

Fiscal restraint is necessary, he said, because there has been too much wasteful spending. “Over the last couple of years, the city has spent way too much,” he said. The city has some strong needs such as maintaining the city streets. “We have severe road issues and we need to reverse the trend of degradation. We need to fill the pot holes quickly,” he said.

There are other priorities that San Jose residents want to see. Many of these deal with amenities such as parks and park maintenance. “San Jose’s citizens have made known their need for parks and for keeping them maintained. There are a number of essential city services that need to be taken care of, and residents, have made those needs known.”

Vision
Currently, Cortese sees a different climate on the city council after just one meeting. “Government itself is already becoming more transparent. And, conversations are opening up and not being carried out in the back rooms. It’s going to be interesting to see where the political equilibrium of the council ends up. For the past few years it was polarized and heavily influenced behind the scenes by special interests. Now it looks less extreme, more like a moderate.”

He called the advent of the Reed administration a “changing of the guard,” suggesting that residents will see a different kind of government and a “city council that appears to be more independent than the past.”

Other changes already are being made, he said. For example, the council is looking at ways to make the meetings go faster, straightforward ideas like limiting the commendations at a given meeting or making requests for them go through the Rules Committee. He thinks the Sunshine reforms that the task force is working on will also help steam line the time line.

Part of the Reed Reforms the council approved on Jan. 9 includes making sure staff reports are publicized 10 days prior to a council vote. “This means that technical questions can be asked ahead of time and by the time the recommendation is taken up by the council, we will have more sense of understanding of the issue and less controversy than when something is dropped in your lap on short notice.”

Work
Cortese outlined how he wants to work with other council members. First, he said, he wants the council to be able to respect each other.

“I’m looking for true collaboration, not bullying,” he said. “That means informing, respecting and incorporating others’ ideas. It also means putting aside my ideas to be replaced by others who have better ideas. That’s the best and most efficient job of delivering services to citizens.”

According to Cortese, the real goal of this administration is listening to the people. “Our job is listening to them to protect their interests and satisfy their concerns. It may not always go the way we want it to, but if that’s what we’re after we’re in the wrong business.”