SJ District 3 councilmember candidates share visions for future of downtown ahead of runoff election

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Ballots for a runoff election are about to hit mailboxes in San Jose as people who live downtown will decide in June who will replace former City Councilmember Omar Torres.

Torres resigned in November and last month pleaded no contest in a child molestation case.

The candidates vying to represent San Jose's District 3 on the city council, Gabby Chavez-Lopez and Anthony Tordillos, faced off in a forum Thursday.

ABC7 spoke with both during the event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Association.

"As a mother and an employer in this district, I think a lot about long-term, about decisions today having impacts on our families," Chavez-Lopez said.

"With my time on the planning commission, I got to see the way the city works up close and personal a little bit, and I saw some things that were working well in my opinion and then I saw some things where frankly there's some room for improvement," Tordillos said.

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District 3 encompasses the heart of downtown San Jose.

When it came to how the two candidates would vote on policies proposed by Mayor Matt Mahan, Chavez-Lopez said she would vote 'No' on pay for performance model, while Tordillos said he would support it. Both Candidates said they would vote no on one of the policies that would arrest unhoused people who refuse multiple offers of shelter.

Another question addressed housing.

Zero projects broke ground for multi-family buildings within District 3 last year.

"I think we, at this point, need a task force as a housing forward task force to really hyper focus on this issue," Chavez-Lopez said. "It is very concerning, and many developers have brought that to my attention, some in the room."

"Cities like Austin just built ten times as much housing as San Jose has," Tordillos said. "We can see that rents are flattening or declining in Austin while they've continued to rise here, so I think we should learn from other cities and see what works."

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ABC7 spoke to Leah Toeniskoetter, president of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.

"In our business health and needs assessment survey last year, all businesses, lack of affordable housing was their number one issue," Toeniskoetter said. "If your employees cannot find housing, they're moving farther away or they're moving away."

Every vote will count in this runoff election.

In April's special election, Tordillos narrowly secured his spot by 6 votes.

"I feel like I still don't know how I'm going to decide, these were my top two candidates though," San Jose resident Lisa Charpontier said.

The runoff election will be held on June 24.