3 vie for Scotts Valley council seats
Newcomer Allan Timms battles incumbents Jim Reed, Derek Timm
SCOTTS VALLEY >> Three candidates are in the race for two open seats on the Scotts Valley City Council, incumbents Jim Reed and Derek Timm, and political newcomer Allan Timms.
Timm and Timms have come out in support of each other in the City Council race in opposition to Vice Mayor Reed, who also serves as the chief of staff for the mayor of San Jose. Reed said that his day job gives him “an interesting and different perspective about how local government works, and the best way to provide services.”
“In any large organization, whether business or the public sector, you can see how good people can unwittingly lose sight of who they're working for and what the end goal is,” said Reed. “The goal in local government is to provide more and better services, and make resident's lives better.”
Reed said he believes that with recent inflation, local and state governments need to work more efficiently. He said that governments everywhere could benefit from a culture shift, with a focus on accountability and results, and specifically that city leaders' compensation should be tied to performance metrics determined by the community's priorities.
“Especially for a small city like ours that has always done such a good job of being nimble and doing more with less, it's concerning when you start to see us moving the other way on accountability, transparency and results,” said Reed. “I know we can do better, and we have to do better in this challenging time.”
Moving toward Election Day, Reed's tops priorities are providing Scotts Valley Police Department with enough funding to make it competitive with nearby municipalities in order to recruit and retain employees, establishing a citywide affordable housing inclusionary requirement and establishing more affordable housing, preserving Scott's Valley's small town character, establishing term limits for city council members, and bolstering community engagement with the city council.
“This city's financial survival is dependent on the good will of our voters,” said Reed. “If we ever lose
the people's trust, we won't be able to provide the most basic of services.”
Councilmember Derek Timm, a real estate broker at Montalvo Homes and Estates in Santa Cruz, was inspired to run for a second term because many of the issues he was concerned with going into his first term, which began in 2018, were set aside to deal with the pandemic and the CZU fires.
“Now I finally feel like our community is in a better place financially,” said Timm. “We're in an upswing and I want to be there to assist with that in the next four years.”
The work that Timm is most proud of in his first term on the council is partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County to provide child care during the pandemic, helping to rebuild the child care facility at Vine Hill Elementary School, working to fully staff Scotts Valley Police Department, championing the policy that allowed
the city to fly the gay pride flag and helping to establish a new Target store in Scotts Valley.
“I was appointed by the council to work with the shopping center owner and the commercial team that was working for him to find a replacement. We went after Target, and it just opened,” said Timm. “It went from a dying center there to something that the whole region is excited about. It was a big win.”
The issues Timm is most concerned with are centered around establishing affordable housing to keep public sector and service workers in Scotts Valley, reevaluating the city's pension system, making progress on the city's town center and bolstering open community spaces.
“Scotts Valley is a really special place,” said Timm. “You can feel a sense of community and safety when you're here and I want to make sure that those qualities are protected and fostered.”
Timm has endorsed Allan Timms and feels that his business experience will complement the current
council. Timms has worked in the tech industry his entire career and currently serves as the senior vice president of engineering at Universal Audio in Scotts Valley, which provides hardware and software for the music industry.
Timms, who originally hails from the United Kingdom, was inspired to join the city council race after taking his U.S citizenship test in January.
“There was a question on the civics test about how
you participate in a democracy,” said Timms. “One of the answers was, run for local office, and something in my mind clicked.”
Because of his experience building and managing teams, large budgets and executing complex projects, Timms felt that the best way he could participate in government and help his community was to put his experience to work on the city council.
“I'm not a politician. I have never been a politician,
and I don't want to be a politician,” said Timms. “This is not about a desire to be in politics. For me, it all comes from a position of, what can I do to give back to the community?”
Some of the issues Timms is concerned with are the city budget and tax income moving forward, and economic development with a focus on developing affordable housing. He feels that the city is changing in terms of demographics and that the council could benefit
from “fresh energy.”
As a political newcomer, Timms has been playing catch up by meeting with city leaders, reading municipal code and budget reports to get a feeling for the city and how it runs.
“One of the things I've really enjoyed over the past few months is getting to know people I would have never met and the issues that are important to them,” said Timms. “It's quite a benefit that I never expected.”