SJDA Interview with District 1 City Council Member Pete Constant
The February 2007 edition of Downtown Dimensions newsletter includes an email interview with Pete Constant, newly elected City Council Member for District 1. The published interview is slightly edited and does not include the biography provided to the Downtown Association. Here is his biography and unedited interview.
Pete Constant biography
Pete Constant was born on Oct. 22, 1963, in Dearborn, Mich., and raised in Westland, Mich., where his Greek immigrant father and second-generation Greek mother had settled with their four children. Pete and his family moved to San Jose in September 1977 and settled into a small house in District 1. Pete later attended Blackford High School, where he began his career in photography with the Blackford High newspaper. In the following years, Pete became a darkroom assistant for Germain Photography and in 1985, he became the youngest Certified Professional Photographers in the county. He later opened a photography studio and digital imaging lab on Winchester Boulevard.
In 1986, Pete became a reserve police officer and joined the San Jose Police Department as a full-time officer in 1989. His many assignments included uniformed patrol, community policing foot beat officer, traffic investigations unit (detective), street crimes unit, vice unit (under-cover detective), and robbery unit (detective). Most of Pete’s assignments were in the SJPD N district, which is within District 1. During his time with the police force, Pete received numerous letters of commendation, including the Day-to-Day Excellence Award, Project Crackdown Officer of the Year, City Manager’s Award of Excellence, and Employee Suggestion Award (that saved the department approximately $65,000 per year). He was also the director for the San José Police Officers Association.
Pete met his wife, Julie, in May 1992 and married her two years later at Mission Santa Clara. The couple lived together in a condo on Winchester Boulevard and later moved to a larger home in District 1 off San Tomas Expressway and Williams Road to accommodate their growing family that now includes two sets of twins — Amanda and Alexandra and Pete Jr. and Samantha, and their youngest and newest addition to the family, Sydney.
Pete was severely injured in the line of duty during an undercover drug enforcement arrest in 1997. When the multiple injuries prevented him from returning to the streets as a police officer, he received a disability retirement. In recognition of the grievous injuries sustained in the performance of his duties as a law enforcement officer, Pete was awarded the Legion of Honor Award by the American Police Hall of Fame.
After his retirement from the Police Department, Pete searched for new ways to serve the public and found an outlet in community service. In District 1, he helped found the Lynhaven Neighborhood Association and was later elected as the association president. Citywide, Pete was been appointed by the City Council to the Valley Transit Authority’s Citizen Advisory Committee and to the City of San Jose Appeals Hearing Board, where he served as the chair. Pete has also been active in several non-profit organizations, serving on the board of directors for Young Audiences of Northern California (arts education for underprivileged children), Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers, Rotary Club of San José North, and The Salvation Army of Santa Clara County.
What are your primary objectives for your first year on City Council?
Concentrate on addressing our budget shortfalls and the systemic reasons for them. Economic development downtown and throughout the city will be the engine that drives our budget back to times of surplus, rather than deficits. As a father of 5 children, I will work to make San Jose a more family friendly city.
I think that we need to get back to the basic services a city is supposed to provide and concentrate on doing them well: public safety, park and library maintenance, trash pickup, and infrastructure improvements.
Let’s say you serve two terms. At the end of eight years in office, what “big deals” do you want to have accomplished?
I want to leave District 1 and the City with more parkland than it has now. I want to have righted the city’s systemic operating budget deficit by bringing in business and economic development while living within our means .
I hope to help bring BART to downtown and see a new airport connected to a bustling downtown by public transit that is easy to use.
What do you expect to be your biggest challenge as a San Jose City Council member be?
The budget and changing a culture that doesn’t understand the needs of small business. We put businesses through too many hoops for simple things, like getting signage. Every hour a business owner has to spend talking with city staff is an hour they are not helping our local economy. As an active resident in my neighborhood, I have witnessed an improvement in the city’s customer service and outreach to residents over the last several years. It is time that we bring these same improvements to serving our business customers, both big and small.
How do you characterize downtown?
When I was first trained as a police officer downtown in 1986, it was pretty seedy. We had a lot of challenges with crime and abandoned buildings. It wasn’t a place that I wanted to spend time when I didn’t have to. Now it has changed into an inviting place to bring your family and your business. In fact, when I opened my first photo studio I opened it in West San Jose, because it was close to home. But my last business was downtown, because it didn’t make sense to have it anywhere else. However, there is more work to do. I look forward to a day when there is a critical mass of residents fueling business development downtown. I hope to see Santana Row become everyone’s second favorite destination.
Although I represent West San Jose, it is my responsibility to be a leader in supporting all of San Jose’s economic drivers, such as the downtown.
If you could change one thing about downtown, what would it be?
BART would have been here 20 years ago and the airport would be connected to downtown by light rail. Build a baseball and football stadium. Add a day-care center for San Jose’s working families.
What are your favorite things to do downtown?
Taking my kids to the Children’s Discovery Museum, the Tech and Christmas in the Park. Watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July from the Capital Club balcony with my family. Dining out with my wife or friends from the Police Department. Taking pictures of San Jose’s signature buildings like the old Bank of America Building, the Arena and City Hall.
