February 22, 2008

Nguyen and Herrera seek District 8 City Council seat

By Bill Highlander
Editor

The roster of hopefuls to replace Dave Cortese on the San Jose City Council continues to get longer. Bringing the count to eight candidates, Lan Nguyen and Rose Herrera have announced their intention to represent District 8 on San Jose’s City Council.

Rose Herrera	Lan Nguyen

Cortese will be ending his tenure due to term limits and is running for Santa Clara County su-pervisor. Silvia Alvarez, Minh Duong, Galvin Jack-son, Van Le, Craig Mann and Patrick Waite have previously announced their candidacy for the city council. The primary election will be in June.

Lan Nguyen, 38, has lived in San Jose for 24 years, emigrating to the U.S. from Vietnam with the “boat people.” He attended Andrew Hill High School and earned a B.A. degree in business administration at San Jose State University and an M.A. degree in counseling psychology from John F. Kennedy University.

His work experience includes being a mental health technician at various non-profits and is currently a management analyst for the county of Santa Clara.

Nguyen is the president of the board of trustees for the East Side Union School District, having first been elected three years ago. “Education will continue to be top priority issue for me,” said Nguyen in his announcement. He added that his issues include school overcrowding, traffic relief, and public safety.

Nguyen is married to Polly Tran and they have two sons, ages three and one.

Rose Herrera, 54, is a 30-year resident of Evergreen and a community activist. She founded Involved Evergreen, an organization to share information, gain ideas for more involvement, and plan ways to bring the diverse community together. She had a key role in relocating the Farmers’ Market to the Evergreen Village Square and continues to advocate for a new grocery store to replace the Lunardi’s store that left the area.

In her announcement, Herrera states that her issues will be public safety, smart growth, traffic control, and improving the schools.

Herrera graduated from Overfelt High School and received her bachelor and master degrees from Santa Clara University. She is an U.S. Air Force veteran. Her work experience includes founding a software company that grew to $10 million in sales and employed 150 people. She continues to consult with start-up companies.

She has also worked with the Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission, focusing on youth programs and is a volunteer with schools and elder care.

For more information about the two candidates, visit Herrera’s web site at www.roseforsanjose.com and contact Nguyen at 408-568-1302.