Endorsements
Julie Testa for City Council
Nov. 6 is only a few days away. Please take some time to educate yourself regarding which developers and/or businesses are funding a local candidate’s campaigns.
Save your stamps, ballots can be dropped off at 123 Main St. (City Hall) at an official kiosk — 24 hours a day.
Join me and vote for Julie Testa for Pleasanton’s City Council. Julie has spent over 25 years as an involved private citizen, and 11 years on Pleasanton’s city commissions. Julie’s signs state she is “Standing for Residents, not Developments,” which is a rare council candidate.
She is also passionate about our community. Julie has invested years of her personal time to ensure Pleasanton is a safe place to live and raise a family. Julie is a strong supporter of my “slow and carefully metered growth” policies for Pleasanton. Rapid growth is not the answer.
The state of California will continue to require Pleasanton to zone land for more high-density housing; however, any new projects that state mandates must be approved slowly and gradually to reduce unwanted impacts for current and future residents. Vote Julie Testa for City Council.
Vote Testa for City Council
Julie Testa has consistently given her time and talents in service to this community.
Our family moved to Pleasanton 23 years ago. With three young children, we were attracted to Pleasanton for excellent schools and a small-town feel.
My husband and I grew up in Fremont, which was a great place in the 1960s-70s, but it grew to become a heavily populated, congested city. We chose Pleasanton: a smaller, quieter place to raise our family.
We have attended many City Council and school board meetings to speak out against over-development and overcrowding of the schools. We served on several committees. In contrast to these occasional endeavors to serve our community, Julie Testa has consistently given of herself, her time and her talents, in service to this community.
We can count on Julie Testa to take a thoughtful approach to growth that considers impacts on our schools, traffic, water and quality of life. As state legislation increasingly encroaches on our ability to determine the future of Pleasanton, we can rest assured that Julie will work tirelessly to advocate for maintaining our autonomy to make decisions that shape our community.
Julie Testa for CC
City Council needs a strong voice and vote that cannot be co-opted by developers. We’re blessed at this time to have Julie Testa as someone who has a proven record of standing up to elitists who know “what’s best for us”.
The stakes are high. We have a state government brimming with imperious ambitions to short-circuit local control over zoning, growth and infrastructure. We have a BART board that wants to convert precious commuter parking spaces into rental housing units. We have a Zone 7 utility that wants to process toilet water and feed it back into the drinking supply (“toilet to tap”).
We have a PUSD school district that, if not challenged, will overcrowd schools as a way to shirk responsibility. We have developers and a Chamber of Commerce whose ambitions and impatience often work against the 1996 General Plan vision of managed growth.
Julie stands out as a leader who is in touch with the citizens, and committed to democratic (vs. bureaucratic) decision-making. As a measure of her integrity, she hasn’t taken campaign contributions from development interests.
I’m really glad to be voting for Julie Testa for City Council. For once, I feel like my vote can make a difference.
Weekly got it wrong again
I was disappointed but not surprised to see the Pleasanton Weekly endorsements for Pleasanton City Council. Especially rich after your Editorial a few weeks ago bemoaning the situation where Jerry Thorne was running unopposed (no debates about issues, no alternative to Thorne available except for a write-in).
Two years ago, Julie Testa courageously ran for mayor against Thorne giving 12,000 Pleasanton voters a slow-growth choice to cast their vote. So, you are once again only endorsing candidates who will continue to support and endorse extreme growth for Pleasanton as directed by the Chamber of Commerce.
The PW predictably endorses the Chamber of Commerce candidates (they have their machinery in place, e.g. Leadership Pleasanton, for a long pipeline of candidates to continue to dominate Pleasanton government positions)?
Yes, we understand that the PW makes money off the chamber’s advertising inserts in the PW and all those real estate ads, but couldn’t you have advocated for some diverse representation on the City Council with an environmentalist, a slow-growth advocate like Julie Testa? It would have been refreshing to see the PW show some courage and financial independence and endorse a non-chamber candidate.
Pleasanton will be best served with the diverse perspective that Julie Testa will bring to the City Council.
Endorsing Julie Testa
I am a longtime Pleasanton resident who has spent years watching Julie Testa’s active involvement to improve our community.
First and foremost, Julie Testa is bold and independent. She does not cave to blanket votes of the council, special interest groups, staff recommendations or anything else she doesn’t agree with. She makes her own evaluations based upon research and insightful questioning.
Secondly, Julie Testa does her homework. She will not skim the City Council agenda and packet and she will be prepared with questions about the items that affect us all as residents. She will relentlessly probe and ferret out as much information as she needs to make a final decision.
Julie is exactly the type of elected official we need as our city leaders advance agenda items that include the (as yet not scientifically confirmed as safe) concept of toilet-to-tap water for Pleasanton, how to address a growing long-term pension obligation debt that could impact future city services, and how much more residential growth and traffic our city can bear.
Julie Testa will make informed decisions that are in the best interest of Pleasanton residents. Vote Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council.
Testa for City Council
I strongly support Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council. I feel that she is the only person running for the council who will actually listen to and heed the needs of the citizens.
Narum is lauded as having experience with careful planning of our downtown and parks. Streng has no experience, but states that he wants to preserve the quality of life he has known in Pleasanton for many years. Same with Ledoux.
These candidates are willing to move the city offices and library to our “Field of Dreams” and decimate the downtown civic park area with high density housing, a possible hotel, and shops. How will that maintain our charming downtown? Where will visitors, diners, apartment dwellers, etc, park their vehicles?
Besides the massive development proposed for the downtown, no one has talked about the pricetag — except Julie Testa. The projected cost of all the changes to the downtown area is about $200 million, and that money will come out of our wallets — not the developers!
Julie stands for the citizens and listens to their concerns. She is not swayed by the Chamber of Commerce and developers because her funding does not come from them (unlike Narum and Streng), and she will make decisions that will benefit our city and quality of life.
She has many years of experience campaigning for adherence to our urban growth boundary, limiting development in areas with a steep hillside slopes, and has been a strong and passionate advocate for our schools.
Support for Julie Testa
Julie Testa is my choice for Pleasanton City Council.
I serve alongside Julie on the Board of Directors of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Tri-Valley. Julie has a commitment and passion for improving the quality of life for others, she has proven her effectiveness and collaboration skills in many aspects of service to our community.
In addition to representing vulnerable populations for 11 years on the Pleasanton Human Services Commission, and as a director on Tri-Valley REACH, Julie represented the Tri-Valley on Alameda County Behavioral Health Strategic Planning and Implementation committees where she played a direct role in bringing much needed mental health services to our Valley, which now benefit Pleasanton families.
As a Pleasanton resident, I want the kind of leader that has a vision for our community and the heart to serve the interests of our families. Julie’s 30 years of service has shown she is committed to stand up and be a voice for Pleasanton residents.
Please join me in voting for Julie Testa for City Council.
Proudly support Julie Testa
I proudly support Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council. She has earned my vote, as Pleasanton’s only true slow- and smart-growth candidate.
As Julie Testa’s campaign manager during this election season, I have been incredibly impressed by her commitment and dedication to Pleasanton residents. She works tirelessly to educate voters about issues that face the community, ensuring that the public is informed and empowered.
I have also had the pleasure of working alongside Julie as a fellow board member of NAMI Tri-Valley. Her passion and perseverance for those families and individuals experiencing a mental illness is profound; she is exceptionally giving of her time and resources to support those struggling.
I strongly recommend that you give Julie Testa your only vote for Pleasanton City Council this Nov. 6.
“Julie will protect our vibrant and historic downtown and insure it is a treasure for years to come. She will add diversity and a fresh perspective to the council – which I believe will result in even better decision making.”
“Join me to vote for Julie Testa for City Council. She has fought for 20 years to improve our schools, slow development, reduce traffic impacts and halt State mandates for high-density housing. It’s time she serve on the Pleasanton City Council.”
“Julie is the choice of concerned residents who believe Pleasanton’s City Council needs a voice for them. Make Julie your choice.”
Testa for a new future
What do you like about living in Pleasanton? The small-town feel, good schools, great locally-owned restaurants? Most people who value these attributes are unaware of the vigilance required by citizens to preserve the things taken for granted.
Take clean water for example. Nearly 20 years ago I worked with a small group of dedicated citizens, including Julie Testa, to prevent our underground aquifer from being contaminated with treated sewage. Now that issue is back on the table and the new City Council will be taking action. Hopefully, they will preserve the overwhelming vote of the citizens.
But there is considerably more to running a city like Pleasanton than approving more parks and bike lanes. The impact any new development will have on traffic, school overcrowding, inadequate parking (which we already have), fiscal responsibilities and maintaining a healthy local business environment will all be on the table in the next few years.
And if you think the plans to spend more than $200 million on an unnecessary new civic center are outrageous, then think about voting for Julie Testa. She has the vision to change our city from one run by business-as-usual compromisers to a sustainable and vibrant city, poised for future challenges.
Julie Testa gets my vote.
Testa stands up for residents, smart growth
Julie Testa has earned my vote for Pleasanton’s City Council in November after reviewing all the City Council candidates’ track records, following their campaign funding sources, and due also to my recent observations of her at the Downtown Specific Plan Task Force meetings.
Julie represents my views and many of my neighbors’ views regarding the downtown development guidelines for Pleasanton. The new guidelines should reflect the majority of people who have spoken in favor of retaining Pleasanton’s “small town character and charm” in the downtown core.
On numerous occasions, Julie has lent her voice to our vision for that area and to other concerns facing Pleasanton. Julie offers her experience of serving for 30 years on commissions, task forces and at public forums. She has consistently done her research on the important topics that impact our community and region, spoken out and stood up for residents. Julie would make it her priority to balance development with the necessary services to help our community thrive now and in the future as a member of the City Council.
Julie Testa will be an independent voice on Pleasanton’s City Council who is working for residents not developers.
Vote Julie Testa for council
Voters of Pleasanton, please wake up. Vote Julie Testa for City Council.
I lived most of my life in a quaint small town similar to Pleasanton. We loved our charming, and friendly, small town. I’ll never forget the day we woke up and looked around at the skyscrapers towering over us. Traffic was suddenly unbearable, we asked who let this happen, and wondered if someone got paid off.
We realized too late that the quality of life that we had valued was gone, and that we had let it happen. We were not paying attention to who was representing us in our then small town of … Walnut Creek.
You have the chance to elect a slow growth representative. Vote Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council; don’t make the same mistake Walnut Creek made.
Julie Testa has my vote
Julie Testa is my only candidate for Pleasanton City Council.
There is only one candidate for Pleasanton City Council who will prioritize citizens over developments. Julie loves Pleasanton and has worked hard to maintain the quality of life and the small-town character.
Pressures to continue with excessive growth are enormous; the potential for financial profits involved are huge. Julie is the only candidate to point out the flaws of the plan to “redevelop” the historic downtown. $200 million for taxpayers to foot the bill to move the police station, city hall and the library while including big housing developments in the downtown location.
Julie will fight for residents on issues such as overcrowded schools, traffic congestion and preservation of the historic downtown. Let’s vote to turn back the stranglehold that special interests have over Pleasanton. Vote for Julie Testa.
We support Testa
We support Julie Testa for City Council. Her views have been printed in this paper many times. We are always impressed by how prepared and knowledgeable she is. Her proposals are always well thought-out.
Our city is about to decide on several very important issues, including Costco, the new Civic Center, what will go on the existing Civic Center site and east side development. We look forward to having Julie’s voice on the council when these and other important decisions are made. Please vote for Julie Testa.
Deep concerns for Pleasanton and our quality of life
Dear Editor,
I am supporting Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council.
Pleasanton needs a strong representative who will stand up to the pressure to build massive high-density housing projects. She will work to minimize the burden on our roads, water and school overcrowding. Julie has fought against the agenda to increase building height, and against adding excessive housing in our charming downtown.
Julie does not believe Pleasanton residents should accept the cost or the risk of drinking recycled sewer water (toilet-to-tap) when science cannot yet guarantee it is safe from toxic contaminants.
Julie Testa will be a strong voice for slow, managed-growth and clean, safe drinking water. She’s got my vote.
Testa for City Council
Dear Editor,
Thank you for your coverage of Julie Testa’s entry as candidate for the Pleasanton City Council.
Now we have an excellent candidate that Pleasanton residents can support to protect Pleasanton from extreme development. How many residents want Pleasanton to become more like Walnut Creek (goal of the stacked Downtown Task Force)? Julie will fight for:
* Preservation of our historic downtown, instead of massive housing projects (with the associated negatives of new higher heights).
* Support slow/smart growth (with consideration for infrastructure). Let’s have Pleasanton follow the motto “City of Planned Progress.”
* Opposition to state interference in local control/planning.
A longtime Pleasanton resident, Julie Testa has worked diligently on behalf of Pleasanton residents regarding overcrowded schools, traffic problems, quality-of-life issues, etc.
Please volunteer/donate and vote for Julie Testa for City Council.
“The Independent recommends voting for one Pleasanton City Council candidate this November – Julie Testa.”
“She is the only candidate that believes that the eastside planning process should not be started again. She would preserve the area as open space. It would also be a resource if needed to meet assigned housing numbers.
“She strongly advocates for protection of the urban growth boundary. She is the only candidate to support a consistent environmental point of view to protect the ridgelands from future development.
“When it comes to decisions about protection of hillsides, the incumbent Kathy Narum campaigned against Measure D, the Oak Grove housing project referendum. The voters voted the hillside housing project down. Both Narum and Joe Streng campaigned for a Yes on K vote, the Lund Ranch II project in the southeast hills. Narum, Streng and Joe Ledoux all support starting the eastside planning again, which would include more housing that would replace open space.
“When it comes to growth, Testa supports a pace that meets RHNA (regional housing needs assessment) numbers, while making sure that infrastructure is in place to support development.
“Vote only for Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council.”
“PleasantonVoters endorses Julie Testa for Pleasanton City Council on November 6”
“Julie Testa is our first candidate endorsement for Pleasanton’s City Council. She has consistently supported PleasantonVoters.com’s goals of protecting our Urban Growth Boundary, preserving ridges and open space and balancing infrastructure needs with growth in our neighborhoods. Julie continues to support slow and smart growth in Pleasanton, and supports PleasantonVoters’ goals of minimizing the impacts of new growth on existing Pleasanton residents. At our Forum she stressed that the City does not know the volume of land that will be required for high density housing, a requirement to meet State mandates for 2022-23 in Pleasanton (also called RHNA). Julie is asking the City to wait until we know our housing mandate numbers, before zoning the East Pleasanton area. She knows, excessive development will negatively affect current residents with bottleneck and cut-through traffic, limited clean water, crowded schools and safety concerns.
“Julie has attended and spoken at hundreds of City, School Board and community meetings on a regular basis to keep up-to-date on the issues that affect our community. Julie has worked for over 30 years on various task forces in Pleasanton, including the Human Services Commission in order to improve the lives of our seniors, the mentally ill and disabled individuals. Julie has demonstrated the passion, intelligence and proven leadership to tackle hard issues facing our community and region.”