LGBTs Welcome New San Jose Mayor

South Bay residents are heralding the inauguration of Sam Liccardo as San Jose's 65th mayor as a sea change in relations between City Hall and the LGBT community.

After battling the previous mayor, Chuck Reed, for the past eight years over his refusal to back same-sex marriage, many LGBT residents had turned a cold shoulder to him. In contrast, even before he took his oath of office January 1, Liccardo had signed on to the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry initiative, upholding a campaign pledge.

In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter in late December a day after signing up with the mayoral group online, Liccardo said that it was "long past time for San Jose to join the ranks of other large cities with mayors supporting marriage equality."

Liccardo, 44, and his wife, Jessica Garcia-Kohl, live in the Northside section of downtown San Jose. Elected to the City Council in 2006, he noted that his former district covered areas of the city with large concentrations of LGBT residents.

"I am proud to represent a city with great diversity, which has been a great source of strength to our economy and to our community," said Liccardo, who has presided over the weddings of several same-sex couples. "Our ability to attract talented, creative, innovate people depends on our ability to continue to be the place that welcomes diversity."

Although the South Bay's LGBT political club known as BAYMEC, which stands for the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, backed his opponent in the mayoral race, Liccardo expects to have a good working relationship with the group. He noted its endorsement decision had more to do with labor union and police interests than with concerns over his record on LGBT issues.

"I understand the political winds blow the way they do. I plan to work strongly with BAYMEC and the LGBT community," he said. "I think anyone would be hard pressed to point to instances where I have not been supportive."

James Gonzales, a gay man and San Jose police officer who is president of BAYMEC, told the B.A.R. that having a mayor again who is a proponent of marriage equality "is a breath of fresh air there."

As for Reed, he "was a mayor you could expect in the Midwest or other parts of the country, certainly not California and certainly not Silicon Valley," said Gonzales, who as vice president of the San Jose Police Officers' Association already met with the new mayor to discuss public safety issues. "Having the mayor of the country's 10th largest city not joining the mayors for marriage equality pledge was a real black eye for our city. Having Mayor Liccardo do that immediately is a great sign and everything points to him being a great partner for our community."

Santa Clara Unified School District board member Noelani Sallings, a Filipino-American straight ally and former BAYMEC vice president, said the new mayor needs to repair relationships with many of San Jose's minority communities as well as its unions.

"People of color and working class people make up half of the city. But he didn't get much support from them," said Sallings, who works at San Jose Jazz as its director of business development. "I would like to see him reach out to those groups and labor unions, the police, and fire and really work on building those relationships again. With the past mayor, a lot of damage was done with those groups."

The divide between Reed and LGBT leaders became so heated that gay Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, a former San Jose city councilman, refused to meet with Reed during his two terms as board president, eschewing the customary practice of weekly sit downs between the leader of the countywide body and the Bay Area's largest city.

Yeager told the B.A.R. during a recent interview that he stopped meeting with Reed "because I just couldn't stand communicating with somebody who didn't think I should have the same rights as he had. Sam is a totally different animal. He is very supportive of gay issues."

While he backed his board colleague, Supervisor Dave Cortese, in the mayoral race, Yeager attended Liccardo's inauguration ceremony Tuesday, January 6 at the Center for Performing Arts. Administering the oath of office to the mayor was retired state appellate justice LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, who is black and an out lesbian and San Jose's independent police auditor. Cordell swore Yeager into office when he won his city council seat 14 years ago.

"I am very excited about Sam being the new mayor," said Yeager, who with his partner has regularly dined with Liccardo and his wife. "We have had a total void in welcoming LGBT people here. We see a lot of talent going up to San Francisco; we need to do more to keep LGBT people in San Jose."

LGBT Issues

There are several LGBT issues facing Liccardo as he assembles his new administration, including hiring a new, permanent city manager.

National LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign penalized San Jose on its 2014 Municipal Equality Index for not having, for instance, an LGBT liaison at either City Hall or within the police department. Out of a possible score of 100, San Jose earned a mark of 88.

Asked about the city's score by the B.A.R. , Liccardo said he is willing to address each of the areas where San Jose lost points. In terms of the liaison position, he said he is "happy to designate" someone to be a point person with the LGBT community but would wait to do so until he had finished hiring his team at City Hall.

"I have no objection to myself or someone on my staff to be routinely meeting with community members to discuss LGBT issues," he said. "I hope and expect the LGBT community will find they have a friend in the mayor's office."

He was less sure of a need for a liaison at the police department, though he was not opposed to it.

"Knowing several officers who are out has led me to believe it has not been a source of concern," said Liccardo. "Now, of course, if I learn otherwise that is something we need to do."

In terms of the city providing transgender-inclusive health care benefits to employees or enacting a city contractor equal benefits ordinance - two other areas where San Jose lost points on the HRC index - Liccardo said he is open to discussing the merits of enacting both.

Before adding transgender health benefits, Liccardo said he "would want to talk to our bargaining unit representatives and our staff about the costs of doing so. Presuming it is not cost prohibitive, I would support going forward."

Regional Issues

Asked about his endorsement of Liccardo to be San Jose's new mayor, gay San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener said, "I've known Sam for over 20 years."

Liccardo attended law school at Harvard with Wiener, gay Supervisor David Campos, and Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco).

"He's terrific," Wiener said. "He's very smart, he's very policy-oriented, and he thinks regionally, and so he'll be a good regional partner. I was happy to endorse him."

Several regional issues, from housing to transportation needs, will confront Liccardo during his first year as mayor. He is a big champion of building a downtown baseball stadium in San Jose as a new home for the Oakland Athletics.

"I don't know any other city in the country with the opportunity to have private investors finance a half a billion dollar catalyst for economic development in the heart of their city," he said. "Urban ball parks have had a transformative impact in cities from Baltimore to Denver to San Diego. And so long as taxpayers are protected, there is no downside for San Jose residents."

His stance may cause friction with Oakland's new mayor, Libby Schaaf, who also was sworn into office this week. Yet Liccardo said his entreaties to the A's are not driven by a desire to steal them away from Oakland but have more to do with not wanting to see them depart the region.

"The A's are going to leave Oakland. Whether they go to San Jose or some other city is not the issue," he said. "There is no plausible future scenario where the team considers to stay and play where it is losing money. I would like to keep the A's in the Bay Area and San Jose provides for the best option of doing it."

He could also find himself at odds with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee over transit funding priorities and the city's bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Liccardo said while having the international sporting event in the Bay Area "would be a wonderful thing," he has concerns about the costs and if it would benefit the entire region.

"We all need to understand the price tag. And it is also important to understand if this is an initiative truly regional or simply in the proprietary interest of a single city," he said. "I look forward to discussing all of these details and do so without judgment."

Financing for transportation projects will be another key area of focus for the new mayor. Liccardo has already come out against seeing the number of BART stations be reduced on the line extension into downtown San Jose and its Alum Rock neighborhood. And he has been vocal in questioning how the planned electrification of Caltrain's tracks - ahead of building a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco - will increase capacity on the Peninsula's commuter rail line.

"I would rather that we think bigger about improving and about expanding the number of riders served by that rail line, even if it costs more money, than to be spending a billion dollars on a system that is not going to deliver significantly more ridership," he said. "We are spending a lot of money to continue to leave Highways 101 and 280 in gridlock. I am vey interested in seeing how we can serve more people along the corridor than simply applying lipstick to a 19th century rail technology."

As he settles into his new offices at City Hall, Liccardo said he is excited to tackle the challenges being mayor brings.

"I am thrilled. We got a great team and we are all rolling up our sleeves to get to work," he said. "We have got plenty of challenges here in San Jose. But I wouldn't exchange our challenges or opportunities for any other city in the country."