I am more than honored to be selected to serve as mayor of Los Gatos in 2025.
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This town is incredibly special to me. When we moved here in 1987, we fell in love with the beautiful hillsides, the bustling small downtown, the incredible weather and our warm and generous neighbors. Immediately, we knew that this was home.I grew up in Pompton Lakes, a small town in New Jersey. It was a commercial hub for 100 years, with a thriving downtown that I used to bike to, where I met friends, shopped for Mother’s Day gifts and bought blueberry muffins that I would sometimes share with the rest of my family. However, with retail shifts, my childhood downtown went into decline that has persisted.
This inspired me to keep the Los Gatos downtown vibrant and thriving, despite challenges.
During my 30-year career as a partner at Ernst & Young and Deloitte, I helped people and businesses thrive. These skills have come in handy serving our town.
Off the heels of a hotly contested national election, I don’t have to tell you that we live in a nation with a great deal of division. But locally, I see signs of the town coming together as we face a tidal wave of overwhelming development applications that could transform the character of our town. We need to manage development in a reasonable way, providing housing opportunities but also sustaining the special character and unique charm of our town. We need attainable housing opportunities for police, teachers and families to live here—not just dense high-priced housing that satisfies only developers. Here are three priorities for me:
1. Safety: wildfire preparedness, controlling dangerous traffic
Aggressively managing vegetation and fuel sources, providing an early warning system, enhancing CERT and emergency communications.
Beach/gridlock traffic is not only an inconvenience; it is primarily a safety issue. We will explore new options, measure real-time traffic effects and work toward new solutions to beach gridlock, including dynamic flow control.
2. Older adult services and new community center
Every town needs places for people—away from phones and social media—to meet face to face, to talk to each other or just have fun together—in other words, an inviting space for a variety of activities for all ages, including dedicated spaces for older adults and for teens. There are too many activities that residents need that are just not available. How do I know this? I helped run a survey of 700 residents on the subject, asl well as two workshops with over 200 participants.
I also helped establish the Los Gatos Thrives Foundation, since the town does not have the resources to do this alone. LG Thrives is unleashing the incredible talents and energy of Los Gatos, raising funds and collaborating with the town to identify the best location. With a new community center, we can restore, sustain and bring new services for older adults and everyone in town.
3. Historic preservation
The town has retained much of its historic structures and neighborhoods, but there are new opportunities to preserve what is remaining and we can address those.
To achieve these goals, the town needs a solid foundation, including:
1. Financial stability and transparency—focusing on controlling unfunded pension liability, capital needs, and unpredictable funding;
2. Economic opportunities for our town’s residents, including retail, restaurants and innovative companies that start up and grow right here;
3. Security and peace of mind for our residents. Los Gatos is a very safe place to live, but there’s an uptick in retail and residential theft. We will do more to enhance security.
I’d like to end with a note on town character. Our town is a treasure, not just the historic neighborhoods and bustling downtown but most importantly, a welcoming community of engaged residents, along with our excellent schools, all nested in beautiful hillsides, surrounded by plenty of open spaces. The character of our town unifies us, emphasizing local actions that we can take.
As mayor, I will focus our efforts in town on civility and being the best, most welcoming and neighborly small town.
A big thank you to the community for the opportunity to serve.
I’d love to hear from you at mhudes@losgatosca.gov.
