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San José Council Taps Engineering Executive Carl Salas for Vacant Seat

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New San José Councilmember Carl Salas, right, speaks to reporters with Mayor Matt Mahan after the council voted 6-4 to appoint Salas to the vacant District 3 seat.  (Guy Marzorati/KQED)

The San José City Council appointed mechanical engineering executive Carl Salas on Tuesday night to the seat that was left open by the resignation of former Councilmember Omar Torres, tilting the balance of power at City Hall decisively toward Mayor Matt Mahan.

Salas will fill the position through the crucial spring months of city budget negotiations until voters select a new council member in a special election this year. District 3, which includes Downtown and Japantown, has been without representation since November when Torres left the job in the face of multiple criminal charges of sexual abuse.

“I love this city. I grew my business here. I grew my family here,” Salas said after the council vote. “I’m so excited to have an opportunity at the end of my professional career to really try to add some value, especially at this tough time here in the city.”

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Salas’ appointment gives Mahan a solid six-vote majority of support as he charts the course of city spending on homelessness and public safety. Salas said he was aligned with the mayor’s agenda of focusing city funding on interim housing and shelter rather than permanent affordable housing.

“You have to focus on the shorter-term housing,” Salas said. “It’s nothing compassionate about these people living in tents on the water.”

He will serve as a placeholder until the new council member is elected. The special election is scheduled for April 8. If no candidate receives a majority vote, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff on June 24.

City Hall in San José, California, on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)

The council interviewed Salas and three other candidates for the interim role at Tuesday’s meeting: Danielle Marie Christian, a former policy aide to Supervisor Joe Simitian; Bob Staedler, a land use consultant at the firm Silicon Valley Synergy; and Jahmal Williams, director of DEI partnerships and university-community liaison with San José State University.

More than a dozen District 3 residents, San José State staff, students and alumni spoke at the meeting and implored the council to pick Williams for the appointment — praising his work building bridges between the university and the community groups throughout the city.

“Jahmal has shown me nothing less than a commitment to addressing issues related to social justice and equity, being in community and ensuring the most marginalized voices are heard,” said Michael Dao, director of the San José State Human Rights Institute.

Though the city charter requires only a simple majority vote of the council to make an appointment, council members initially set a goal of appointing a new member with a seven-vote supermajority.

In the first round of voting, the five business-friendly moderate members (Mahan, Michael Mulcahy, Bien Doan, Pam Foley and George Casey) all cast ballots for Salas, while labor-aligned progressives Pamela Campos, Peter Ortiz and Domingo Candelas voted for Williams.

The council’s traditional swing votes, David Cohen and Rosemary Kamei, were split: Cohen supported Christian, while Kamei voted for Williams. In a second round of voting, after Christian and Staedler were eliminated, Cohen voted for Williams and Kamei switched her support to Salas, leaving the vote split 6-4 in Salas’ favor.

Facing the prospect of a continued deadlock, Cohen and Kamei joined the five moderates to adopt a six-vote threshold for appointment, clinching the 6-4 victory for Salas.

Salas co-founded Salas O’Brien, a consulting firm for engineering and technical services, in 1978, and he currently serves as a board member for the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy and the San José Police Foundation. He was sworn in after the vote and will be thrust immediately into the city budget process. Declining sales tax revenue and rising costs of city employees and homeless housing have left the city with a $60 million shortfall.

San José Mayor Matt Mahan speaks about a state audit of spending on homelessness outside City Hall on April 9, 2024. (Joseph Geha/KQED)

“District 3 residents need to know that they can trust their representation at City Hall; I know Carl is committed to rebuilding that trust,” Mahan said. “They need to know that we have experienced, thoughtful people making tough budget tradeoffs.”

City staffers in the mayor’s office and District 3 council office have provided basic constituent services for district residents in the months since Torres submitted his resignation, just hours before he was arrested on Election Day.

Torres was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage relative in the late 1990s. Before the relative came forward, Torres faced pressure to resign as San José police investigated him for allegations of sexual misconduct with a different minor.

Torres was first elected to the council in 2020, representing a district that includes neighborhoods such as Downtown, Guadalupe Washington, Northside, Japantown and Luna Park. Torres was a reliably progressive vote who was backed by the city’s powerful labor movement.

In the campaign leading up to the special election, those unions are largely lining up behind Gabby Chavez-Lopez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley — while Mahan has endorsed his former deputy chief of staff, Matthew Quevedo. The field of candidates also includes retired Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Lt. Adam Duran, mediator and small business owner Irene Smith, housing commissioner Anthony Tordillos and retired marriage and family counselor Tyrone Wade.

Downtown boosters are watching the election closely, as they hope the neighborhood will benefit from marquee events coming to the South Bay in 2026, including Super Bowl LX, the FIFA World Cup and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

“We have an immense year coming to us in 2026 that takes planning right now,” said Leah Toeniskoetter, president & CEO of the San José Chamber of Commerce. “The Japantown Business District, Luna Park, East Santa Clara Street are all business districts that rely deeply on their council member, and they haven’t had that representation for some time.”

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