Leading the way in San Jose

Steve Castillo photography

Alumnus Ron Gonzales (B.A. community studies, Kresge '73) is halfway through his first year as mayor of San Jose

The third-largest city in California and the 11th largest in the nation, San Jose is considered by many to be the capital of the high-octane, high-tech mecca known as Silicon Valley.

As mayor of such a dynamic city, Ron Gonzales frequently arrives home very late at night, feeling like he's been through the spin cycle of a washing machine. Undaunted, Gonzales calls the job he's held since January the most incredible he's ever had.

"It has surpassed my expectations," he says. "It's going to sound a little bit like a campaign slogan, but I really do believe I've got the best job in the best city in the nation at the best possible time. It's certainly the kind of job where you are never bored. No day is like the day before."

On a daily basis, Gonzales grapples with a range of issues: reshaping city government to promote teamwork and efficiency, stoking the economic engine that powers San Jose, balancing economic and environmental concerns, and supporting schools as they educate tomorrow's workforce.

"The bottom-line responsibility of any city is to make sure we're doing our job providing the infrastructure that fuels the industries that keep our people working," says Gonzales. "It takes a lot of cooperation and partnership and is not always easy."

Educated in Sunnyvale's public schools, Gonzales came to UC Santa Cruz in 1971 as a junior transfer student from De Anza College in Cupertino. A community studies major at UCSC, Gonzales got his first experience in government while fulfilling a field-study requirement. During the spring and summer of his junior year, he worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Washington, D.C.

It was an exciting time to be in Washington and at the EEOC: The capital was abuzz with Watergate, and the EEOC had just received the power to sue employers directly for discrimination. Gonzales, who had never before traveled outside California, called his field study a "tremendous personal learning experience."

After graduating in 1973--the first in his family to earn a college degree--Gonzales worked for two years on a community schools program in Sunnyvale before taking a job in the city of Santa Clara's planning department. Four years later, he joined Hewlett-Packard, where he worked in personnel and marketing.

At about the same time, Gonzales launched his political career. In 1977, he lost a race for a seat on the Sunnyvale City Council, but won on his second try two years later. He served as mayor of Sunnyvale for two terms before being elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 1988.

During his campaign for mayor of San Jose, Gonzales made education his No. 1 issue. While the mayor has no direct responsibility for schools, Gonzales maintains that mayors can take both concrete and symbolic steps to help schools improve.

In the first few months of his term, Gonzales began making good on his campaign pledge, launching a program to help new San Jose teachers repay portions of their college loans. In another effort to help the city attract and retain teachers, his administration is providing
resources to help teachers buy their first homes in San Jose, where skyrocketing housing prices make home ownership difficult on a teacher's salary.

Gonzales is also aware of the value of simply keeping educational reform in the forefront
of discussion.

"We need to do everything we possibly can to help children realize their dreams, whether it's to be a software engineer, a schoolteacher, a journalist, or even a mayor," Gonzales says. "I want every child in San Jose to know that this mayor is standing behind them, working with the teachers in their schools, the principals of the schools, the superintendents of the school districts."

As a Hispanic mayor of a major city, Gonzales is frequently mentioned as one of California's brightest political stars. The mayor, however, says the future is not his focus. "I'm thinking about this job," he explains. "If I do this job really, really well, that will be satisfying enough."

--Francine Tyler