The 3 most crucial decisions before South Bay voters

We sympathize with voters who are perusing their ballot for the first time and feeling overwhelmed with the decisions to be made.

Voters have dozens of candidate races and ballot measures to decide. It’s a daunting task. We know. We have been working for months interviewing the candidates and researching the ballot measures. Our endorsements can be found at the bottom of this page.

We want to reinforce our recommendations for three of the most important decisions before South Bay voters:

Board of Supervisors, District 4

The race between Susan Ellenberg and Don Rocha to fill the District 4 position will determine who will be the swing vote on the five-member Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

Ellenberg is the obvious choice to fill that role.

It’s important to know that Ellenberg did not seek the backing of either labor unions or the business-oriented Silicon Valley Organization in this race. She is not beholden to either group. Nor does she just talk about having political courage. Her actions demonstrate it. Ellenberg, as president of the San Jose Unified School District board of trustees, could have shut down the divisive issue of whether to consider turning some of the district’s schools into teacher housing in order to stem the flow of fleeing teachers who can’t afford to live in the area. It would have been the politically expedient thing to do. But Ellenberg saw that it would have been irresponsible for the board not to engage on the issue, given the magnitude of the housing crisis.

Rocha, on the other hand, has significant backing from labor, to such an extent that labor organizations have spent $474,000 this fall trying to secure his election. Labor doesn’t make that level of investment in a county race unless it expects their candidate to advocate for their positions if elected.

San Jose’s Measure V

San Jose cannot hope to thrive unless it solves its affordable housing crisis for middle- and low-income workers. It’s not only a serious issue for teachers, nurses and every-day workers, but also for the next generation of youth wanting to build their careers in the city.

Measure V would authorize the city to issue $450 million in general obligation funds to help meet its housing needs. The measure requires two-thirds voter approval. The outcome is expected to be close.

It’s important to know that the ballot language requires that the funding be spent on housing and cannot be diverted for other uses.

A misleading hit piece released Friday implies that Measure V would be used to make it easier to close schools for employee housing. It’s not true. Mayor Sam Liccardo is on record saying he “will oppose the use of Measure V funding on the site of any school campus closed over any significant community opposition.”

Critics also argue that removing obstacles before developers is a better way of attacking the issue.But that’s not the solution. It costs developers $550,000 to $600,000 per unit to build apartment buildings in San Jose. Those units won’t get built unless the city helps out.

Alum Rock School Board

Alum Rock Union School Board trustees Khanh Tran and Esau Herrera must go. They have contributed to a level of dysfunction in the K-8 school district seldom seen in California. How bad is it? Tran has a restraining order against him that doesn’t allow him to attend board meetings. The Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury has called for]Tran and Herrera to resign due to their failure to meet governance standards and financial responsibility.

Six other candidates are running for three seats on the board. Any of them would be better than Tran or Herrera. We recommend incumbent Andres Quintero and challengers Ernesto Bejarano and Ray Mueller.