Ahead of the June primary election, the Bay Area News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates for San Jose City Council District 5. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and clarity.

To read our endorsements for other important Bay Area races click here.

Name: Nora Campos
Current job title: Business owner
Date of birth: June 15, 1965

Other political positions held: San Jose City Council and CA State Assembly

District where you reside: Park Pleasant neighborhood

If you’ve held elective office before, how has your work directly improved the quality of your constituents’ lives?

Economic Development: I brought investments to District 5 by redeveloping the King and Story Shopping District which brought 4 banking institutions to an area that had not had a financial institution in over 25 years and a Target retail store to anchor a shopping district that is one of the higher sales tax producers in the City. I revitalized the Alum Rock Village and brought a second Target to the Capitol Square Shopping Center which took over the Montgomery Wards site as the anchor that brought new life into that shopping district.

Community Facilities and Parks: Under my leadership, I had two new libraries built – the Dr. Roberto Cruz Alum Rock Library and the Hillview Library. I rebuilt the Mayfair Community Center and Community Swimming Pool; I expanded Veggielution urban farm at Emma Brush Park, I created the Lower Silver Creek Trail which runs from Lake Cunningham to Capitol Park, I revitalized Plata Arroyo Park, Hillview Park and LoBue Park. I created the first skate park in San Jose at Plata Arroyo Park and a second skate park at Mayfair community center. With City/School District partnerships, I worked with East Side Union High School District to put lights on WC Overfelt High School’s football field and completely developed Mt.

Pleasant High School’s football field and track and made them open to the community. I worked with Alum Rock School District to build a new football/soccer field and track at Sheppard Middle School and worked with the East Side Union School District to build a Fire Science Academy building at James Lick High School located next to Fire Station 2

Public Safety: I built a new Fire Station 2 on Alum Rock , a new Fire Station 21 on White Road and remodeled Fire Station 16 on King Road. I successfully added 25 police officers to the budget to expand the total number of San Jose Police Officers.

Transportation: I got VTA to commit to and begin design of the Eastridge Light Rail extension from the Capitol Avenue station, I got VTA to commit and design the Alum Rock and Santa Clara Street Bus Rapid Transit line from Eastridge Transit Center to the Diridon Station.

Community Associations: I established 25 neighborhood associations and NACs from the Strong Neighborhood Initiative (SNI). Most of the community benefit items I referenced above , came directly from meeting and working with community members through the SNI and Neighborhood associations and creating their top priority lists. Together we got it done.

What are the top three problems you’re seeking to solve if elected to represent this district? 

Clean and Safe Neighborhoods, Housing and Economic Development

Why are you uniquely qualified to address the three problems you’ve identified above? 

I am uniquely qualified to address these issues because I bring experience having served this district before. I transformed a blighted business district that had not seen investment in more than 30 years bringing 100 million dollars in public/private investment. This included four financial institutions, and city resources to support the existing small business with Target as the anchor store for this shopping district. I built 3,000 affordable housing units and passed policy in the Mayors budget to increase our public safety departments. I have a proven track record of implementing and securing funding for policies that improve the quality of life for our communities.

How do this district’s challenges differ, in degree or kind, from the rest of the city’s, if at all? 

The district’s challenges are that historically, District 5 has been the last to receive resources and basic City services. It takes a focused and disciplined representative to make sure resources and allocated to District 5. A prime example is when COVID19 shut down the Country and San Jose, while County and City leaders debated over what should they do to get resources to the community, It took me to write an op-ed in your paper to get movement from the County to commit $500k to the four highest impacted zip codes which were all in District 5. As a private citizen, I worked with a County Supervisor to expedite the County’s commitment to those impacted zip codes. I then worked with Gardner Health’s CEO to provide testing and then administer vaccines and I got the Mexican Heritage Plaza to be the host site. Unfortunately, this is how District 5 is viewed when it comes to quality of life resources. We have had 10 years of representation that keeps making excuses for District 5’s underinvestment from the City, but the real issue is leadership or the lack thereof. I will bring leadership back to District 5.

What differentiates you from your most serious competitors for this seat?  

Experience, Leadership, Integrity and Maturity. I bring the most experience and history of delivering for District 5 than my opponents including the current Council Member. The issues the current Council Member ran on in 2022 have not been addressed in the past 3 years since he has been in office. You can’t run on issues like “coming up with a plan to address homelessness” and then be a barrier to the Mayor’s efforts to create temporary housing (tiny homes) while permanent housing is in the pipeline or is being entitled and built. That shows his lack of experience to find common ground for a solution. We are in difficult times Nationally and those issues have come down to our neighborhoods. Folks can’t afford their basic necessities like groceries, utilities or gas for their cars. We need to have a pragmatic and thoughtful approach to guid our city through this time period.

What committee or board would you most like to lead, if given the opportunity? And how would that position serve your constituents?

Community and Economic Development, Public Safety and Finance

San Jose is now close to finalizing its third four-year review of its Envision 2040 General Plan, the details of which will shape the city’s future development path. What priorities would you like to see in this revised general plan?

In addition to committing to the Village Plans, I would like for it to reflect the real life realities of the community needs. Our neighborhoods need to be better connected with reliable transportation plans that meet the needs for all of us including senior and those with a disability. I would like to have more flexibility to combine commercial designated parcels in the village plans with housing. Currently, there is very little flexibility in have mixed use in some of the village plans and vice-versa. However, it creates a larger burden on the developer if they want to build on one of those restricted commercial lots because in most cases, you would have to provide 100% affordable. Too often the property owner does nothing with their property and an opportunity for a true mixed use project is lost. I also want to see more opportunities/incentives for development investments that incorporate District 5’s fledgling trail system that hasn’t been expanded since I fought for it when I served on the Council.

What solutions do you support to reduce housing costs in San Jose? How are they any different than ones that have already been tried?

This is a complicated issue and has been for the last 30 years. When the City had a redevelopment agency, we built housing using the State as a partner. Tax increment financing was a way the City was able to mitigate private investments in affordable housing by subsidizing the costs for land and the costs for infrastructure. One of the biggest costs to building housing is the land and costs associated with the public improvements required for all housing developments (street and intersection improvements, storm drains, utility connections, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, etc.). I would work with the State to bring a better version of redevelopment. I would create a tiered system to qualified affordable housing projects. The higher number of affordable units or the deeper the affordability for units, the higher level of subsidies the project could be awarded. I would also connect this new version of redevelopment to the City’s state approved housing element plan.

This new form of redevelopment would only be used for affordable housing. We need to get creative and since San Jose was one of the best examples of a City that used redevelopment the right way, San Jose should lead the way again.

San Jose has placed a 2% hotel tax increase on the June ballot. Do you support that tax? Why or why not?

Yes. The need to fund basic services in San Jose is so important, we need to recoup costs associated with attracting visitors to the City.

Why should renters in your district vote for you? 

Renters should vote for me because chances are many are living in an affordable housing unit that I was able to build with redevelopment funding. I know I can expand the number of permanent housing units built so the rental market can support the demand. Often times, the lack of available housing units drives up the costs of rent.

Even though San Jose has a rent control ordinance, supply and demand often creates situations where availability can’t keep up with the need for all levels of affordability. I think we can get more units back in the pipeline for development with the help from the State and bringing back the tools we used with the redevelopment agencies.

Is PG&E serving San Jose residents well? If not, explain what actions you would take to lower energy costs for San Jose ratepayers.

PG&E has neglected its customers in so many ways. Their neglect of deferred maintenance on the system infrastructure has now lead to major system failures and now PG&E can’t afford to pay for system upgrades. PG&E, being a publicly traded company is not going to answer to rate payers, it is going to respond and please its investors. With that said, I think competition for PG&E is not a bad option. San Jose has discussed options to compete with PG&E in past years, I would be willing to listen to all options if it meant creating relief for the high costs of energy for our residents.

What actions do you support to tackle homelessness? How are your policy prescriptions different than what’s already been done?

I think the Mayor’s plan is just the beginning. I do believe in transitional housing for the unhoused, in fact, when I served in the Assembly, I wrote the first bill that became a pilot project focused in San Jose for tiny homes. This is a vital step to provide a safe environment for individuals and families to come off the streets, get shelter and receive the wrap around services they might need (mental health, medical care, joblessness or teens and young adults fleeing an unstable home life). The temporary housing phase doesn’t work with we can’t build enough permanent housing for them to transition so they can reenter society and have stability. As I said before, using tax increment financing to fund investment in permanent housing is a practical and reliable stream of funding that has not been attempted. I will reach out to Sacramento to begin that dialogue.

Why should your district’s commuters vote for you? 

Commuters should vote for me because I am a strong advocate for multimodal transpiration options. When I served on the City Council, I made it a priority to work with the department of transportation to begin to study and design better routs for cyclists to share the roads. We now have protected bike lanes and a much better network of routs to get to and from jobs, commerce and schools. I was also successful in getting VTA to plan and design the light rail connection to the Eastridge Transit Center and bus rapid transit from Eastridge to the Diridon station. I laid the foundation for our improved multimodal transportation system in District 5 and I will hit the ground running. Residents of District 5 will be able to connect to all areas of San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area.

San Jose is facing a $56 million budget shortfall. With property and sales tax revenue growth slowing and labor costs rising, how should the city balance its budget? What specific programs or services would you cut? What contracts, if any, would you renegotiate?

I would not begin by cutting jobs because the would mean cutting essential services. I would work with the Mayor and City Manager to freeze hiring in all departments except public safety. I would look at services that are outsourced and see which ones we can reduce. I will look at all options before we cut public safety or quality of life services.

San Jose PD spent more than $71 million in overtime last year. This year, it is on track to surpass its personnel services budget once again. What financial cuts or reforms will you demand of SJPD, if any?

The only way we are going to address the overtime facing the city of San Jose is to work toward addressing the fact that the City of San Jose operators with 1 sworn officer per 1,000 residents. We need to invest in hiring staff to fill positions to meet the demand of the SJPD then we will not need to bring office in to work overtime.

San Jose PD has an exceptional record closing murder cases, and the city has a low violent crime rate relative to many other big U.S. cities. But in what ways could SJPD better serve your district?

I believe the San Jose Police Department is doing a good job with the staffing level they have to serve a city with a million residents. If I could make a change, I would like to bring back community policing. I think community policing is an effective way to build trust and a stronger relationship with the residents in the district who are often times willing to be the eyes and ears in the community and welcome a closer relationship with the Police Department.

Explain your position on San Jose’s policy to cite and arrest homeless residents who repeatedly refuse shelter.

This is an issue that deserves a much more thoughtful analysis deeper conversation. There is a reason individuals refuse shelter. Often times, that reason is very personal to them. It could be they are battling demons with addiction or other mental health conditions. If this is the case, that population needs help and treatment. I would expect that services are provided for them if they are taken in to custody.

Explain your position on San Jose’s use of Flock license plate cameras. 

I don’t support any information gathered from license plate readers being shared with other jurisdictions especially federal agencies like ICE.

Should San Jose have more data centers than those already approved? Why or why not? 

I do support data centers. However we have to be strategic in where we allow them to be built. Data Centers require a reliable power source and water to help cool the center’s equipment. With that said, I would require they that be near power sources where they could have acres to San Jose’s reclaimed water network (purple pipes) so we don’t waste potable water.

San Jose office vacancy rate remains stubbornly high post-pandemic. In downtown, offices sit empty and countless retail storefronts are boarded up. What policies do you support to revitalize the city’s downtown core?

I would support providing incentives for businesses to invest in the downtown. These incentives could be the elimination of fees associated with permitting including conditional use permits. I would also support some conversions of office spaces to housing.

San Jose is attracting a fraction of Bay Area venture capital. And the city, relative to San Francisco, is weak in attracting seed- and early-stage startups, per overwhelming VC data reports. What should San Jose be doing to attract more tech, if anything at all?

From my research in the industry, I have realized that San Jose is one of the hardest cities to start a business let alone a start up or driving industry. I would create a specialized unit in Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department that specializes in doing some of the heaving lifting on behalf of these lucrative business. I would also create a special unit in the Department of Economic Development to work closely with Planning. In addition to actively recruit these VC firms.

Have you been convicted of any felonies? If so, when and of what?  

No.

Are you a plaintiff or a defendant in any current civil litigation? Please explain, if yes. 

No.

What do the biggest contributors to your campaign expect from you? 

The contributors to my campaign expect for me to lead and solve the problems that are facing the City of San Jose. I believe that is an expectation that I can meet with my experience in governances. They also expect me to be present and available to my constituents.

What more should we know about you that might inform our board’s judgment of your capacity to serve this district’s constituents?

I was raised in this community and have dedicated my life to serve my community. I have served in an elected capacity for 16 years and as a private citizen. My leadership has changed and improved the quality of life of the residents of District 5 and it is my goal to continue this work.