Please e- mail your completed questionnaire to Rhovy Lyn Antonio, no later than 5:00pm Friday, February 19 th, 2016

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1 California Apartment Association Tri- County Division CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is being sent to candidates for public office as a key component of the endorsement process by the California Apartment Association, Tri- County Division. The information you provide on the questionnaire will remain on file at the California Apartment Association- Tri- County Division, 1530 The Alameda, Suite 100, San Jose, CA Candidate profiles and responses to questions may be featured in our regular publications. In addition to responding to the questions below, please include a brief biography which lists civic/community activities in which you have participated in the past few years noting the nature of your participation and any offices you have held. Please e- mail your completed questionnaire to Rhovy Lyn Antonio, rantonio@caanet.org, no later than 5:00pm Friday, February 19 th, 2016 Candidate & Campaign Information Name: Peter Allen Home Address: 1434 Settle Avenue, San José Zip: Rent x Own Do you own Rental Housing? NO If yes, # of units: N/A Occupation: Nonprofit Executive & Small Business Owner Business Address: SAME AS HOME Day Phone: (408) Evening Phone: SAME Fax: N/A E- mail address: peter@peterforsanjose.com Ballot Designation: Nonprofit Executive Name of Campaign Committee: Peter Allen for City Council D Campaign Treasurer: Andrew Sinn Campaign FPPC ID#: Campaign Budget: $100,000 Funds Raised to Date: $35,000 Campaign Manager: Alfredo Fletes Campaign Consultant: Nicole Derse, 50+1 Strategies, LLC Headquarters Address: SAME AS HOME Headquarters Phone: (408) Campaign Website: Maximum contribution to your campaign allowed by law in your jurisdiction: $600 per entity per cycle Maximum contribution you will accept from our Political Action Committee, CAAPAC: $600 Are you seeking the endorsement of CAA Tri- County s PAC? YES

2 Candidate Questions Please answer each of the following questions limiting your response to each to approximately words. 1. Why are you running for City Council? First and foremost, I love San José. I was born here, I ve lived here most of my life, and I plan to build my family here. It s an exciting time for our city, with a burgeoning economy and a renewed sense of collaboration at City Hall. As a third- generation native San Josean, I m proud of the city my hometown has become, and I m inspired by the potential that still defines it. I was raised by a public school teacher and an accountant, which means I value education, a strong work ethic, and the dignity of earning a paycheck. These are values we need in our civic leaders if we re going to build a stronger San José together. As a nonprofit director, small business owner, neighborhood leader, and city commissioner, I ve learned the best decisions for a community are made as a community. I understand the history of San José and the unique concerns of our distinctive neighborhoods. I also understand the needs of the next generation, who prefer to live and work in communities that are more urban, walkable, and diverse. I believe I can bridge these two perspectives and bring the people of District 6 together around creative solutions to the challenges we face. 2. What are your top three priorities and how will you address them? Making San José more affordable for working families With the cost of living raging out of control and average wages stuck in limbo, San José has become a city with two faces, where many of our hardworking neighbors struggle to make ends meet in the shadows of sparkling new high rises and gleaming freeway overpasses. Meanwhile, a recent study showed that Santa Clara County spends more than half a billion dollars a year providing services to the homeless, the overwhelming majority of whom reside in our city. It is both our moral and a fiscal imperative to come together as a community to address the affordability of San José. This can be done through a multi- faceted approach that includes controlling the rapidly increasing cost of housing and helping local businesses create jobs that pay a living wage. Encouraging sensible and sustainable growth consistent with long- term planning The city should be thoughtful in recognizing the urgent need for more affordable housing while preserving land slated for commercial development. This delicate balance can be achieved through well- planned, mixed- use projects that provide housing as well as job opportunities. Additionally, with an eye toward efficiency and effectiveness, we need to ensure that our transit infrastructure serves our entire community with affordable transit options for those with and without cars. By embracing a multi- modal transportation system, we can reduce traffic on our roads, improve the productivity of our workforce, and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Finally, we need to return to the roots of Silicon Valley by incubating business growth in our own backyard, creating a culture of commitment to San José that leads to long- term investment in our city and local workforce. Protecting our streets and neighborhoods We ve all seen how the economic downturn and in- fighting at City Hall have impacted the safety and security of San José. While a great deal of

3 progress has been made, we have a great deal of work left to do to restore baseline resources and staffing numbers. The settlement of Measure B and a renewed sense of collaboration between the city and our employees have improved morale, but it will take time for San José to become a competitive employer again. As we work toward restoring our police and fire ranks, we should continue to leverage Silicon Valley technology to improve efficiency and address root causes by investing in youth and community programs like the Mayor s Gang Prevention Task Force and fire prevention services. 3. Please discuss, in depth, your position on rent control/rent stabilization? In order for San José to be a city that works for everyone, we need housing options that are affordable for people across the economic spectrum from teachers to firefighters to bus drivers to line cooks. I support the council s current efforts to explore options for improving the City s rent stabilization ordinance in order to reduce the already overwhelming burden on our renting population. While significant change to rent regulation is only possible at the state level due to Costa- Hawkins restrictions, I believe it is important for local jurisdictions particularly the nation s 10th largest city to play a leadership role in moving Sacramento to act. That being said, any changes to the rent stabilization ordinance should not be entered into lightly. From my perspective, the key impediment to consensus is the amount of allowable rent increase in any given year. Rather than advocate for a specific percentage, I would encourage the City to tie the allowable increase to inflation or other measurable economic indicators so that rent increases do not outpace the ability of our residents to afford them. I believe this would be the most equitable solution for everyone involved, and have the largest impact on preventing displacement of long- time families. 4. What do you believe is the proper role for local government in each of the following areas: a. Regulating the timing & circumstances by which a landlord can change a tenancy Local government can and should protect responsible renters from unwarranted evictions while simultaneously providing landlords with a clear, fair, and efficient process for evicting problem tenants and/or displacing tenants in order to exercise their Constitutional right to sell or redevelop their property. b. Promoting compliance with fair housing laws It should go without saying that a key role of local government is not only promoting but enforcing compliance with fair housing laws. But government must respect the rights of both tenants and landlords through fair and equitable enforcement of such laws. c. Restricting smoking in apartment communities Having lived in a number of apartment communities, I believe that some level of regulation is required in order to protect non- smoking tenants from indirect negative impacts to their health and quality of life. In this day and age, we can all understand the cause and effect of smoking and chronic diseases such as cancer and asthma. However, the first step to regulation should always be outreach and education, and the

4 empowerment of the apartment management to regulate their communities without the over- involvement of government. d. Promoting and financing affordable housing It is both our moral and a fiscal imperative to come together as a community to address the affordability of San José. If we embrace a spirit of working towards collaborative and innovative solutions, we can create a city that gives everyone a fair shot at stability and success. The City should build on existing partnerships and develop new relationships with the nonprofit and private sectors to increase supply and control costs, and continue to explore and implement innovative projects like transitional housing, hotel/motel conversions, micro apartments, and regulated urban camping. e. Encouraging production of market rate rental and for sale housing The City should play a leading role in encouraging the production of all types of housing, both affordable and market rate. In many ways, the rising cost of housing is driven by the free market, but the City has the power to influence the market through land use and other policy decisions. By encouraging mixed use developments and thoughtful, targeted land use conversions, the City can work toward its goals for job growth while addressing the shortage of housing inventory that is driving sharp and unrelenting cost increases. As a Councilmember, I would examine opportunities to regularly review San José s development fees to ensure that they are not preventing, prohibiting, or otherwise overburdening developers from producing the housing we desperately need. 5. Do you believe that current state and local laws provide adequate protections to both landlords and tenants? YES NO X If no, what changes do you think need to be made? At the direction of the Mayor and Council, staff is currently exploring a variety of options for modernizing the city s Apartment Rent Ordinance and developing a new just cause ordinance. Both of these policy initiatives have the intention of improving protections and certainty for both landlords and tenants. While staff is still working with an advisory committee made up of landlords, renters, and tenant advocates in a valiant effort to find collaborative solutions, it is clear that neither side is willing to budge from their entrenched positions. As such, I believe the council should act to revise the ARO to tie allowable rent increases to economic indicators such as CPI, which according to staff reports from the San José Housing Department would still provide landlords a reasonable rate of return on their property while ensuring more stability for low and moderate income renters. I also believe the council should adopt a just cause ordinance that provides tenants with a reasonable level of security while shortening the process for evicting a problem tenant by as much as 40%. This would help landlords ensure the safety and security of their properties and responsible tenants. Furthermore, I am open to a dialogue with the CAA, your members, and other stakeholders regarding potential capital improvement incentives to offset the burden of implementing these new policies.

5 6. Do you support or oppose a split- roll property tax which would tax commercial and residential property at different rates? SUPPORT X OPPOSE 7. Answer YES/NO to the following statements: a. Do you think the 8% cap on rent increases in San Jose is too high? YES b. Do you believe San Jose needs a law that requires rental owners to provide a reason before they can ask a tenant to move? YES c. Do you believe the benefits of rent control should be focused on families of middle and low income? NO d. Do you think state law should be changed to allow local governments to impose rent control on all rental properties? YES e. San Jose should do more to facilitate the development of housing for families at all income levels? YES 8. Is there an imbalance between jobs and housing in your city? How would you address this issue as a councilmember taking into account traffic, parks, housing needs and types, and the city s economic vitality? Ensuring San José s long- term fiscal sustainability will require foresight, vision, and creative leadership. An imbalance of jobs to employed residents leaves the City short of the revenue needed to provide world- class services to all of its million residents. Improving the tax base means growing our jobs base. In order to do that, we need to embrace one of San José s greatest strengths: our culture of innovation. The global tech giants that are driving our economy today were once daydreams that came alive through all- night strategy sessions. We must continue to foster that innovation in our small businesses and start- up economy. By incubating business growth in our own backyard, we can get back to the roots of Silicon Valley and create a culture of commitment to San José that leads to long- term investment in our city and local workforce. This type of investment will be critical in meeting the goals for job growth laid out in long- term city plans. However, the city should also be thoughtful in recognizing the urgent need for affordable housing while preserving land slated for commercial development. This delicate balance can be achieved through well- planned, mixed- use projects that provide housing as well as job opportunities. 9. An initiative to tax the gross receipts for businesses will likely appear on the November ballot. Please share your thoughts on this proposal? I am generally supportive of using taxes to raise revenues to fund critical services, and we all must pay our fair share. Because general sales taxes tend to be regressive in that they hit working families the hardest, and because there are no guarantees that six votes on any given Tuesday will direct the additional revenue in alignment with community priorities, I would prefer to look at other options. We are only just learning of the potential ballot initiative to implement a gross receipts/payroll tax on San José- based businesses. On first glance, it is something I could generally support. However, the framers of the initiative would be wise to consider any unintended negative impacts to landlords, small businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations that struggle to make ends meet while employing our residents and serving the community. I am glad to see that Mayor Liccardo and the City Council have initiated a study of

6 San José s existing business tax so that a fair and reasonable compromise might be achieved without a contentious fight at the ballot box that could further polarize our public policymaking. 10. Do you think San Jose s current rent control ordinance provides meaningful benefits to renters and balances the business needs of rental housing providers? What specific changes do you think need to be made to San Jose s Apartment Rent Ordinance. Please see my responses to questions #3 and #5.