Santa Clara County

Jensen says, “Nobody knows the jails any better than I do.” He served for several years as the assistant chief of the Department of Correction at the sheriff’s office. Jensen says he wants the county Board of Supervisors to provide more funding to support incarcerated people suffering from mental illness. He also says he supports the construction of a new jail — an ongoing and controversial debate in the county — to create more space and opportunity for incarcerated people who require support from mental health professionals. 

Jonsen agrees with his opponent on the need for a new jail in the county. He has also proposed launching an intern program for clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists to increase mental health staffing in the department in the short-term. “Maybe we have five student interns under one trained clinician or psychologist,” he says. “That’s a great access point for people to be able to make appointments and not have to wait months to see somebody.” 

Jensen says he welcomes the oversight from OCLEM and believes that more people in the sheriff’s office will feel comfortable cooperating with the monitor after Smith steps down. As sheriff, he says he would balance the need for oversight with “the rights of personnel issues,” adding that “not everybody should have everything that they've ever done leaked to the public.”

Jonsen has touted his previous experience working with Michael Gennaco, OCLEM’s project manager and lead attorney for Palo Alto’s independent police auditor, and vowed to “dramatically improve” the relationship with the monitor. While Jonsen faced criticism as Palo Alto police chief for pushing to limit the auditor’s scope, he says the oversight is “only healthy for an organization and a community.”  

Chavez is pledging funding to hire 45 new police officers every year. She has been criticized by opponents for votes she took on the City Council to expand police retiree benefits, which contributed to the billions in unfunded liabilities San Jose faced after the Great Recession. But she says her support from state and local law enforcement makes her uniquely positioned to encourage police recruitment. “What they know is that I am committed — absolutely committed — to making sure that we have enough people to respond to calls for service,” she says. 

Mahan is promising to hire 200 new officers over the next four years. But he says the current request from the San Jose Police Officers’ Association for a 14% raise over the next two years — a boost the group argues will help increase retention — will place undue strain on the city’s budget, and has instead vowed to prioritize “more staffing” rather than “simply giving larger raises to the existing employees.” 

Chavez, as a county supervisor, opposed state Senate Bill 9, a 2021 law to allow the construction of duplexes in neighborhoods zoned for single-family homes, calling it a “one-size-fits-all approach to residential zoning.” She has instead advocated for more legal assistance and direct aid to help people stay in their current homes, and to secure additional funding for the city’s Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department to expedite housing approvals.

Mahan, as a City Council member, also opposed SB 9, saying development in San Jose should instead be focused around denser urban areas. He has the support of many large developers and has advocated for fee reduction and streamlined permitting. He also opposes developer linkage fees — used to raise money for affordable housing — and says the city should actually return development processing fees if it misses permit review or inspection deadlines. 

Chavez says, under her leadership, San Jose residents will quickly notice shorter police-response times and more aggressive efforts to clean up graffiti and garbage in the city. And she also promises to make quick headway in reducing San Jose’s unhoused population, pledging that “people will see a difference in the number of homeless people that we see on the streets.”

Mahan promises quick action on what he calls “core responsibilities,” including public safety and cleanliness. He has vowed to quickly enact a program to pay unhoused residents to help clean parts of the city and “get more neighbors out volunteering to invest in beautification, cleaning up graffiti.” 

Chavez says that as a county supervisor, she was able to forge compromises with fellow board members on complex issues such as the county’s COVID-19 response. “I didn't have any special power,” she says of her time on the board. “The mayor of San Jose’s superpower, for lack of a better word, has to be able to bring people together to be effective.” Chavez says she supports the current structure of city government, as it requires the mayor to build consensus on the City Council.

Mahan prefers a governmental system that allots more power to the mayor, saying the current structure diffuses responsibility. Mahan says he would use the budget process to set tangible goals for the city — and then tie council-member and department-head compensation to the achievement of those goals. And he hopes to hold city government more accountable by creating a public “dashboard of results.” But Mahan’s fellow council members, even those ideologically aligned with him, have questioned his ability to forge compromise on the council, after just two years in elected office.

Khamis points to his tenure on the San Jose City Council, during which he says he pushed for the preservation of the Santa Teresa foothills by facilitating deals between residents and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. As a councilmember, he also voted in 2019 for San Jose to spend $46 million to buy and preserve 937 acres in Coyote Valley. As a supervisor, he says he intends to protect agricultural land and provide county assistance to farmers.

Arenas, as a San Jose City Council member, backed Measure C, a successful 2018 ballot measure to restrict housing development in outlying areas of the city. The campaign was launched to block a competing measure that would have rezoned industrial parts of Arenas’ district to build senior housing developments. “We need dense housing,” says Arenas, who advocates for more housing development in more populated areas of the city near public transit. “We don't need this (sprawling) growth that we've experienced — it’s very expensive for our cities.”

Khamis says that while both facilities are needed, he would have voted with the majority to move ahead with construction of the new jail. He has also criticized delays caused by supervisors further studying the issue: “There’s no sense of the business world and how costs go up over time,” he says.

Arenas says she “probably would stand with the people who didn’t support it, and not because I don’t think that there should be a new jail.” She says the Board of Supervisors should take a closer look at “systemic issues” such as resources for mental health treatment outside of the county jails.

Mei says she supported a streamlined, online permitting process for creating accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in Fremont. As a state legislator, she pledges to advocate for more funding for workforce housing and to improve communication with residents and local officials about pending state housing proposals. “It’s easier to adopt something if people understand the impacts,” she says.

Wahab says she would push for a statewide inclusionary housing policy, requiring builders to earmark a certain number of units for affordable housing in every new development. “If the state is willing to say, ‘OK, every single development needs to have 10% affordable housing,’ I think that's the responsible approach,” she says. 

Mei says she would “like to revisit” a provision in Proposition 47 that increased the monetary threshold — from $400 to $950 — at which theft could be prosecuted as a felony. “It has gotten very challenging for our police and our community,” she says. “We should not be rewarding people and giving them the idea that you can commit a crime.” As mayor of Fremont, Mei supported funding a controversial program to place police officers in Fremont schools, saying the decision reflected concerns raised by the local PTA.

Wahab says the punishment of thefts should be reformed to provide more restitution, with a focus on restorative justice. “That means hours of (community) service,” she says. “That means giving back to those individuals that were violated.” She points to her vote as a Hayward City Council member, to create a mental health crisis team to handle some emergency calls. “This project actually allows for the police to focus on actual crime,” says Wahab.