Currently holds the office of San Jose City Mayor until December 31, 2024.
Candidate for San Jose City Mayor in 2024 California General Election.
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Get StartedWhen it comes to safety Matt rejects the sloganeering. We don’t need to ''defund'' police, we need to train our police, deploy them more effectively and support crime-prevention efforts like job training, mental health and better schools. Learn more
Matt has been working to fully staff the San Jose Police Department and focus on tackling crime from every direction. He is working to stop the ''Catch and Release'' policies that allow those who have repeatedly violated the terms of their pre-trial release to continue to be released into our city, even when they have previously committed serious and violent crimes. Learn more
Absolutely not, he supports fully staffing our police department as we continually work to improve our police practices by targeting the handful of serious and violent offenders who commit a disproportionately high number of crimes, hiring and retaining officers who speak the many languages used in our community, and focusing on programs that prevent crime like drug treatment and job training. Learn more
He has proposed linking the pay raises of politicians and top department heads to measurable results. When passing the annual budget, Matt worked with the council and the community to set clear goals on top priorities like lowering crime, reducing homelessness, cleaning up the city and addressing affordable housing – and then publish these goals and our progress toward meeting them on a public dashboard. Matt believes that pay raises and bonuses should be tied to performance. If progress isn’t made toward key community goals, there should be no raises for those at the top. This has worked before. It used to be that in California the state budget was almost always late. Angry voters finally stepped in and created a law that prevents the legislature from being paid if they don’t pass a budget on time. Since then, our state budget has always been on time. Learn more
Matt believes we can end street homelessness by building affordable and basic shelter for a fraction of what current plans propose and then require people to use it when it is available. He believes we must rebuild our mental healthcare system so that those who are a danger to themselves and others can be required to seek treatment. He is fighting to make sure every city in our county, and every county in California, does their fair share. Learn more
Matt believes we need to put housing where it makes sense – downtown and near well-served transit so we can create new housing without traffic gridlock. San Jose spent many years developing an ''Urban Village'' plan to do exactly this. It is a good plan with a focus on housing near jobs and transit. But now San Jose needs to implement it, not throw it away for new plans that seem to give developers a free hand to build whatever they want wherever they want. Matt does not think new state laws like SB 9 and SB 10 don’t make sense in San Jose. Matt believes we can accommodate more backyard cottages, and secondary units in homes (things like garage conversions where that makes sense). What we have to remember is that new housing needs to be paired with new infrastructure – like transit – and the ability to provide vital needs like water to new residents. Matt believes we need a comprehensive approach here, not a political reaction. Learn more
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