Q&A: New year means a new mayor for Los Gatos

Los Gatos has a municipal government system where Council members, who are elected for staggered four-year terms, rotate being mayor. In December, Rob Moore, now in his fourth year on the body, became the youngest mayor in the history of Los Gatos.

At the ripe age of 27, Moore is also the youngest member of the Council.

His passion to serve is obvious. And he says he plans to run for another term. Though no stranger to controversy, Moore will now take on greater responsibilities—and will potentially have to fight off increased attacks—as mayor. But, he says he’s ready for the challenge.

Faizi Samadani sat down with Moore recently for an extended interview, recording his thoughts on residential development proposals, legal fights and how to protect Los Gatos’ unique character.

What are your favorite things about the town of Los Gatos?

Good question. I’m a big outdoors person, so I love our access to nature. I run on the Los Gatos Creek Trail once or twice a week, and I think the Creek Trail is amazing. I love that it passes through some beautiful parks, like Vasona. I think that’s amazing, and I often bike once a week on those trails. So, I really enjoy the access to nature, even within Santa Clara County or the Bay Area.

I have friends that live in other cities in the county, and it’s just not the same in that way. Perhaps it’s a bit cliché, but I think my favorite thing about Los Gatos is the people. I think Los Gatos has a wonderful welcoming community of people that really care about each other. They care a lot about creating a community. Just the past few weeks, we’ve had all of the holiday festivities. And when you go downtown, it’s so incredibly vibrant. There are so many people out. It’s a diverse mix of people. 

I said this in my swearing-in speech, that we have a community that refuses to sit on the sidelines. I think we don’t have a lot of people in our town who just go to work in Palo Alto, drive home and watch TV for the rest of the day—and do it over again. I think we have a lot of people that are very engaged, that participate in the local economy and the community and the schools. I love our downtown. I think we’re so fortunate to have a true downtown. You know, some of our neighboring cities—like Cupertino, for instance—don’t actually have a downtown. It’s something I totally took for granted growing up in Los Gatos.

How do you handle criticism?

Being on the Council for the last three years, I’ve dealt with a lot of criticism. I’m no stranger to it by any means. In one way, it’s just part of the job. I support—and try to coach and mentor—a lot of potential candidates, especially younger candidates in other places around our state. And one of the things I tell candidates is, I think anybody can run for office. And there’s just one prerequisite, and it’s that you have to have thick skin. If you don’t have thick skin, you can’t do it. Because people are going to be mean to you all the time. 

Do you believe that age plays a role in criticism of you?

I’m not sure. You know, I’ll say a couple things. One, there’s a woman who comes into most Town Council meetings who does not agree with my politics. She’s a big self-proclaimed MAGA-type person. I am not. And, you know, I guess the best way to say this is, at our most recent Town Council meeting, we were having a discussion about whether or not to do a Pride Flag-raising. She addresses me as “Young Rob.” She comes into many Council meetings. You know, I have had people reach out to me afterwards and be like, Oh, that’s so disrespectful.

I think perhaps people sometimes feel like they can, you know, treat me differently because of my age. However, much more often than I am criticized or face disrespect for being young, I think I receive much more praise or encouragement because I’m young and in government.

When I ran for office, I knocked on about 7,000 doors throughout the town to Los Gatos. One in 10 people—when I knocked on their door and had a conversation with them—said, Sorry, I just don’t think someone that’s 24 should be running the Town government. Fair. And when somebody said that, I respected that opinion and moved along, right? The person’s unlikely to vote for me. I’m the only Council member on the Los Gatos Town Council younger than the age of 60.

What is the most difficult thing you’ve had to face in your last three years on Council?

I am an open book and you can ask me whatever you want. Perhaps the most difficult thing was getting sued. Myself and Maria Ristow, another Council member, now vice mayor, were sued twice. And that was not fun to go through. There were a lot of questions about whether or not the Town of Los Gatos would represent us, or whether or not we would be on our own—for paying our own attorney’s fees and things like that. That was in September of last year. I found the claims, and so did the judge, to be rather frivolous. They were claims about something that I posted on Nextdoor about a woman who had threatened a shooting against Town employees before I was on the Council. She was going around flying people’s homes with hate flyers.

I expected things like that to happen, being in government. The thing that was very challenging: there were weeks—and months—where it was not clear whether or not the Town of Los Gatos would provide legal counsel to me and Maria. And they ultimately did. But, if the Town would not have done that, I would have been on the hook personally for 10s of 1,000s of dollars of attorney’s fees. And I get paid $6,000 a year to be the mayor of Los Gatos. I do this work because I love it and I believe in public service. There is no money in it. I think the fact that there were even questions around whether or not I would be represented was disheartening.

What’s going on with plans for a community center?

There’s a nonprofit called Los Gatos Thrives, and that both (Councilmember) Matthew (Hudes) and I are involved with, and they’re working on finding a suitable site. And so, that’s the next big step. But there’s a lot of progress being made. They’re doing a lot of really good work, and then it’s just going to come down to fundraising. I think at some point in the next 2-4 years, the Town is likely going to have to run some sort of revenue measure. And then it’s just going to be a question for residents about what their priorities are.

What do you do for your day job?

I work another job, because I have to pay rent. I work for the County of Santa Clara for County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, and I do health care policy. I do cover her portfolio for all health services, so that includes our four public hospitals, 15 clinics, behavioral health services.

What are your thoughts on SB 330 + the Builder’s Remedy?

So, I think housing will inevitably be one of the defining issues of my term as mayor. And, you know, in the last year, we, the Town Council, heard and approved three SB 330-type developments. And we have about a dozen in front of us for this next year. So, It’s going to be a massive challenge. Absolutely, yes I understand people’s concerns. I think people have good reasons to be upset. I think, you know, historically, the role of local government has been to provide services like police and fire and public works and these sorts of things. But one of the big policy roles is land use—and always has been. It’s just how local government has always worked.

And over the last five or so years, the State of California has essentially—chipped away doesn’t quite cover it. On one hand, the State of California has a housing crisis, and it is far too expensive to live here. And the state needs more housing. Period. On the other hand, there are developments being proposed in Los Gatos and throughout the county—some of them are quite obnoxious. The idea of having a single-family home that, you know, for many families, that’s their dream home, right? They’ve worked their whole lives to purchase a home. They buy a 3-bed, 2-bath home, in a nice part of Los Gatos that they can afford. And then, a 15-story building is proposed essentially in their backyard. I think that residents have every right to be upset about that.

North 40 Phase 2—which will be heard by the Town Council in the coming weeks—that development proposes building 470 or so units, which is a lot of units. But the State has told us that we have to build 2,000. And so, it’s a hard balancing act, between trying to approve projects that are within the scale of the town, while also ensuring we’re building enough housing to keep up with State mandates. And frankly, just affordability demands, right? When you are not allowing people that have a connection to, or a love for, Los Gatos to live here, because it’s just too expensive, I think that is really hurting the character of Los Gatos.

Proudest moments in Council the last three years?

One thing that I’m particularly proud of is Los Gatos’s homeless hotel program, which I see as particularly innovative. Just a-well suited solution to our particular homeless community, homeless neighbors and residents. I quickly recognized that there have been people from the faith community who—for the last 20 years or so—have been intimately involved in taking care of our homeless neighbors, providing food, showers and these sorts of things.

The first year I got on Council was a particularly harsh winter with big rain and windstorms. And there was a homeless individual who I spoke with, who said that they were sleeping by the Los Gatos Creek. The creek flooded, and it flooded around them, and so they had to climb up into a tree with their cats and wait out 12 hours until the creek flooding subsided. I really was interested in addressing this true safety issue. And so, what we’ve done is create a program where during severe weather events, a select group of our homeless residents who have accepted services from these faith providers get on a list, and be able to be put up in a hotel for a duration of time.

During your mayoral handoff speech, you promised to be a mayor for all Los Gatos—for every resident, every neighborhood, and every perspective. But your first move was to push for a change to the Flag Policy, which, if you just look at the dozens of comments on our Facebook page, has exposed strong differences of opinion. How is it possible to push ahead with your progressive agenda—while still representing the fiscal and social conservatives who are fundamentally opposed to some of the things you want most?

I am friends with and spend a lot of time with people who have very different politics than me. I have my personal politics and the things that I believe in, but I think it’s incredibly important to listen to all perspectives and address the issues that are most relevant to the people in our community. I don’t see adopting a Pride Flag-raising as being in any way incongruent with being a mayor for all of Los Gatos. It will go up for all of June.

As long as I’ve been on Council, they’ve been asking for this. No other group, in my three years on the Council, has asked me to raise a flag for any reason. If somebody did, I would be happy and willing to listen to them. The Los Gatos LGBTQ community has faced hate and bigotry. And so, I see being a mayor for all of Los Gatos as representing those people in our community who feel attacked no matter who they are. I think that’s very important. Many of the detractors are not Los Gatos residents. Maybe 80% of Los Gatos residents support it and 20% don’t. I’m always going to try to bring all voices in.

It’s no secret that you want to encourage the building of both market rate and affordable housing. So, how will you balance your desire to do this with your duty to represent Los Gatos, which is currently involved in multiple lawsuits that could invalidate parts of state law that have been most effective in forcing jurisdictions like Los Gados to do just that?

I think those lawsuits are asking legitimate questions. I do not think that every development proposal in Los Gatos is appropriate for the site or—frankly—I think there’s many that won’t end up getting built or happening. And so, I do support the development of new housing, especially new affordable housing. I don’t think that’s at all in conflict with wanting to have control over developments that come our way.

What about e-bikes issue?

I’ve been working very hard on the e-bikes, e-motorcycles issue. I hosted a sort of town hall-style meeting for the community to come out and share their perspective. And then subsequently, with Council member Ristow, brought forward a sort of suite of policy proposals to address the issue. And thus far, we’ve made progress really on all of them, which is really good. 

I think the biggest win so far, since we brought that forward, is that Los Gatos High School has implemented a registration program that I think is really helping. The registration program is making it so no illegal e-motorcycles can park on campus. I’m really interested in potentially working with our state legislature to bring forward some changes. I’m also now working to create a variety of engaging educational materials for both parents and students to be better informed about safety risks of illegal e-motorcycles—and the legal risks.

What do you see as the trajectory of Los Gatos? 

I think Los Gatos is a community that has always had a special and unique character, and I don’t see that at all going away. However, like all cities in the Bay Area, Los Gatos is going to continue to evolve and change. I said some version of this in my swearing-in speech too. No one mayor who has a one-year term, is going to fundamentally alter the long-term trajectory of our community. I really think it’s on all residents to get involved and help push the community in the direction that you want. So, if you want more parks, that requires work, right? If you want safer streets and better bike lanes, I encourage people to get involved in those efforts.

What are some of your priorities for your mayoral term?

One thing I would say to look forward to is that I’m working on big community events that I’m planning to host and convene. One is youth town halls that are going to be open to young people in the community—sort of middle school through college-aged students. To get engaged, learn about opportunities, to get involved in the community and also just talk and build community together, and sort of be a productive space for young people to come together and build community. And so that’s one thing I’m very excited for.

I’m hoping to pull together a variety of service clubs and nonprofits in Los Gatos to host a Los Gatos community service day. I’m going to recognize a Resident of the Month and a Business of the Month. People that got caught doing good, who are people in the community who perhaps haven’t been recognized for their efforts in the past.

*This article has been edited for length and clarity.