Times: Hercules incumbents say challenger’s job too time-consuming for council
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 8 October 2008 — 1 comment below »
Is the job as council-member exclusively for retired persons? The sitting City Council seems to think so…
Hercules incumbents say challenger’s job too time-consuming for council
By Tom LochnerHERCULES — All four Hercules City Council candidates seem to agree that the current council is doing a nice job and the city is on track to a better future, so unless voters feel otherwise, the race likely will boil down to which of the two newcomers will lose: Don Kuehne or John Delgado.
Three seats are at stake; the third incumbent, Charleen Raines, is not running.
The re-election-seekers, Councilman Ed Balico and Mayor Joanne Ward, and the three other council members all endorse Kuehne, the secretary of the Hercules Education Foundation.
Ward and Balico question whether Delgado, who works full time as a San Francisco assistant district attorney, has enough time for the job of Hercules City Council member — Balico said he puts in more than 40 hours a week on council-related business.
Hercules council members serve on an array of regional bodies and city committees; Balico serves on about a dozen, including the League of California Cities’ East Bay Division and the WestCAT board, though that is more than most of the other council members.
Kuehne is a senior research engineer for Chevron Energy Technology Co. in Richmond; he said that if elected, he would reduce his work schedule at Chevron to three days a week. Ward is retired as a senior systems analyst and computer trainer for the city of Oakland. Balico runs a real estate brokerage, .Com Real Estate, from his home.
Said Delgado, “I don’t think city government should be represented just by those who are retired or those who aren’t full-time employees. It should be a cross-section.”
He cited some peers in similar situations: fellow San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Mike Menesini, who is a longtime Martinez City Council member; and Michael Guingona, a longtime councilman in Daly City who also is a full-time criminal defense attorney.
With the slowdown in the nationwide economy and the local real estate business, Balico has more time to spend on council business these days. He worked for Hercules Waterfront Properties Inc. on Railroad Avenue until he quit in September 2007, he said; the company is no longer there.
“I don’t know what they did,” he said. “I’m not sure what happened to them.”
The other two members who will remain on the council after the election are retired. Joe Eddy McDonald is the retired postmaster of Rodeo and Hercules, and Kris Valstad is a retired developer. Raines also is retired, from Contra Costa County Children and Family Services.
interesting position for Ward to take. As she well knows, the head of the agency she worked for in Oakland, Bob Glaze, worked full time for the City of Oakland and at the same time served as a councilmember in Hayward for many years.