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Articles & Videos
| City Council Election Results from 2007: Randy Royce 3,300 Elected Omar Ahmad 2,200 Elected John Hoffmann 2,049 Alex Phillips 1,463 |
| Spied: Signs of Upcoming Election on Laurel…& Online By debramonroe on Aug 27, 2011 ...Royce, who handily won his seat in 2007 (along with Omar Ahmad), says for him, the biggest difference running this time around is that he now has a proven track record. He says the current council members took some risks and worked hard to change the city’s business model to put San Carlos back on firmer fiscal ground. “I think the climate overall is good,” Royce said in an interview today. “I think people are pleased.” As for the three-way competition, Royce thinks that’s a good thing. A contested race forces candidates to, “talk to people and find out what they’re thinking,” Royce said. “We need to put out mailers and knock on doors.” |
| Daily Journal October 3, 2011 Sue Lempert In San Carlos, two seats are open. Incumbent Randy Royce is on the ballot with two other well-known residents, Planning Commissioner Ron Collins and Mark Olbert, trustee on the San Carlos Elementary School District board. This may be one of the closer races with Olbert and Collins fighting for the open seat. Each has a group of enthusiastic supporters, but Collins may have the edge. |
| San Mateo Daily News, October 13, 2011 Editorial Re-elect Royce to council Dear Editor: Of the three candidates for the two open seats on the San Carlos City Council, only one is an incumbent. While the other candidates have excellent resumes, only Randy Royce has served on the council for the past four years, where he has built a record of accomplishments deserving of re-election. Randy came to the city council with many years of prior service through various boards and commissions, and with senior financial experience with HP. On the council, he has focused on fixing the city’s financial problems. As mayor it was his vision that resulted in the major “out of the box” initiatives that resulted in the solid financial condition San Carlos now enjoys. Most notable are: outsourcing maintenance of parks and fields, combining our police operations with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and our fire department with Redwood City fire management. Randy continues to promote additional initiatives worthy of considering. All the while, Randy has maintained his commitment to preserving and improving the quality of life for San Carlos residents. I am proud to be among his supporters and urge others to join me in re-electing Randy Royce to the city council. Fred Koehler, San Carlos |
| San Mateo Daily Journal, Editorial endorsement of Collins & Royce October 19th Editorial: Collins, Royce for San Carlos City Council October 19, 2011, 03:29 AM Editorial The city of San Carlos has undergone a year of tremendous transition. It adapted to a new police service contract with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. It finalized a split of its fire service with the city of Belmont and decided instead to pursue a contract with Redwood City that recently began. And Mayor Omar Ahmad died of a heart attack in May. As expected the contract with the Sheriff’s Office for police services is going well and is already being pointed to by others as a model of efficiency and partnership that could lead to additional contracts and money savings for other cities on the Peninsula. The decision to split from its fire service partnership was a challenging decision made even more difficult by politics, current contracts and uncertainty. But the partnership with Redwood City will most likely go well and again lead to new opportunities for shared services across the county. The city was also fortunate to have former mayor Brad Lewis temporarily step into the seat left open by Ahmad’s untimely death. Now it is election season, and voters have the opportunity to decide upon three candidates for two seats on the City Council. One is currently held by Randy Royce, the other is the seat left vacant by Ahmad. The other two candidates are San Carlos Elementary School District Trustee Mark Olbert and Economic Development Advisory Commissioner Ron Collins. The city is fortunate to have three solid candidates who are thoughtful, open and dedicated to the city and its residents. Any one would make a fine member of the City Council. But there is only room for two in this election. Royce is an obvious choice. He clearly loves the city and wants only to make the best decisions for its residents. Through his participation in difficult and responsible decisions, the city was able to carve itself out of a structural deficit that was going on its 10th year. That marks significant progress and illustrates the benefit of the current council’s emphasis on transparency and respectful debate. No one could ever argue that Royce was not thinking of ensuring the highest level of services the city could afford through the process leading up to and during key decisions. Both Collins and Olbert would make good members of the City Council and have slightly different perspectives and backgrounds. The edge, however, goes to Collins. His 30-year background in the city through his business, prior service on the Planning Commission and years of community service provide a wealth of experience for him to draw upon. Olbert too, has good ideas, but seems inconsistent at times particularly when he talks about emphasizing the human impact when discussing the fire contract, then talking about the need to eliminate certain positions in the city and suggesting the current council places too much emphasis on their personal relationships. All three have great ideas when it comes to drawing the right business mix, but only Collins and Royce emphasize the need to save the city’s small surplus for a rainy day and some infrastructure. Olbert suggests investing the money to grow future businesses. That’s solid for private enterprise, but not the best policy for a municipality. That’s a relatively minor point, however, and overall, Olbert’s out-of-box thinking is a worthwhile addition to the discussion. We encourage him to stay active in the city and in his current role on the school board. The city and the school board are beginning serious discussion on partnership opportunities, including a potential land swap and shared facilities like a theater. Olbert’s ideas, particularly the concept of creating a joint agency to oversee shared facilities, are worth exploring. But for now, Royce deserves a return trip to the council while Collins will bring his dependable and forthright perspective to the job as well. |
| San Mateo Daily News, Editorial endorsement of Royce October 27th For a small city, San Carlos is anything but sleepy. In the past year alone it has cut deals with Redwood City to manage its fire department and with San Mateo County to provide law enforcement. Those radical moves, along with outsourcing parks maintenance work, are expected to annually save the city millions of dollars. In the same year, the city also lost a popular mayor, Omar Ahmad, who died from a heart attack in May. On Nov. 8, San Carlos residents will vote in Ahmad’s replacement and decide whether to re-elect Randy Royce to a second term. In addition to Royce, retired financial executive Mark Olbert and insurance business owner Ron Collins are campaigning for two seats in the election. Endorsing Royce for one of those seats is a slam dunk. The retired HP executive clearly loves his city and has demonstrated his commitment to making it an even better place to live in. He also is one of those rare politicians who can truthfully say he fulfilled his promises, although doing so was no easy feat. When he became mayor almost two years ago in the middle of the economic recession, Royce said he was tired of having the city constantly staring at budget deficits and would do what it takes to stop that trend. Under his leadership, the city set in motion the changes to its police, fire and parks departments. In the process, he and his council colleagues took a beating from employee unions and some residents who feared a loss of local control. In the end, though, most police and firefighters kept their jobs and the city actually ended the 2010-11 year with a surplus for the first time in several years. Royce believes more streamlining is possible, but with the big changes behind, he can now focus on trying to draw a wider variety of businesses to the city’s industrial section and downtown........(partial text) The Daily News urges San Carlos residents to vote for Randy Royce and Mark Olbert in the city council election. |
| Daily News Nov 4th Editorial During the last four years, the San Carlos City Council and staff have successfully erased the city’s $3.5 million budget deficit and now enjoy a small budget surplus, thanks to creative out-of-the-box planning and program implementation. Council incumbent Randy Royce played a key role in the decisions which brought the county and neighboring cities together in order to make government more effective, more efficient and more responsive to the needs of our citizens. He has delivered on his promise, when elected in 2007, to balance the city’s budget while maintaining essential police, fire and recreational services. But more must be done to rebuild the economic health of San Carlos over the long term and Randy is ready to accept the challenge for another four years. His commitment: • To work with other local jurisdictions to make government more efficient; • To improve communications and encourage feedback between City Hall to citizens via a quarterly newsletter •to attract and retain local businesses; • To continue to develop an effective Safe Routes to School program; • To expand on the recently adopted branding and marketing program; and • To overlay these goals’ sound environmental policies. For these reasons, I support Randy Royce for San Carlos City Council and ask you to do the same. Tom Davids San Carlos The letter writer is the former mayor of San Carlos. Daily News Nov 4th Editorial Royce, Collins for council I wanted to write to express how important next week’s election is for the city of San Carlos. It has been a very difficult period as the city struggled through eight to 10 years of a structural budget deficit, which has been omnipresent in all decisions made by the city staff and city councils during that time. In the last two years, council and staff boldly addressed the foundational financial issues head on, which has led the way to a budget surplus, which is virtually unheard of at any level of government these days. Now, the critical goal of the city council is to stay fiscally conservative while rebuilding the morale of city employees and smartly spend capital surpluses on infrastructure and projects held in abeyance the last several years in order to balance the budget. There are two candidates who are clearly the best suited to this endeavor — Randy Royce and Ron Collins. Randy has played a crucial role as a council member, righting the financial ship while being positive, supportive and collaborative during council discussions and debates, and respectful of our excellent city staff and employees. Randy has brought a unique perspective and helped contribute a strong fiber to the council of five. Ron Collins is the most diligent and selfless city servant San Carlos has ever experienced. With the myriad civic responsibilities he has voluntarily taken on, he is— by far— the most steeped and best versed in all aspects of San Carlos. He has served the citizens in so many different capacities for 20-plus years that they can vote for Ron with absolute confidence that they will be represented by a person who has demonstrated a deep caring and extensive knowledge of every aspect of our great culture, history and bright future. Both Randy and Ron do their homework, play fair and are respectful to their peers and the public. It is a rare and opportune time to move San Carlos forward. Brad Lewis, San Carlos City Council member Daily News Nov 4th Editorial Royce stands out I have been a business owner in San Carlos for 28 years and have been fortunate to get a little involved in city politics. As such, I have gotten to know many of our city council members. One who has stood out is Randy Royce. Not only does he possess an excellent and highly intelligent grasp of what San Carlos needs, but Randy also shows sincere compassion and understanding of our citizens, as well as issues. He is a strong leader who serves San Carlos well because he balances logic with heart. I urge San Carlos to vote for Randy Royce. Geoffrey Stern, San Carlos Daily News Nov 2nd Editorial Royce has shown leadership Dear Editor: Randy Royce and other San Carlos City Council members have provided a great role model for positive government, where the elected officials think creatively and make hard decisions that are in the public good. These actions have returned San Carlos to sound fiscal condition while maintaining the quality of life that attracts us all to live here. Imagine how much better our state and nation would be if the elected officials in those offices acted with the same thoughtful commitment that our city council has. Of the three candidates for the two open seats on the San Carlos City Council, only Randy Royce is an incumbent. Randy has proven his commitment to our community and his willingness to work with other council members to solve difficult challenges. Our city has many opportunities in front of us and Randy continues to provide positive leadership. I am proud to support Randy in his re-election and urge all San Carlos voters to join with me in voting for him. I truly believe our community will be well served by his continued work on the council. Ron Granville, San Carlos |