East Valley Democratic Club (EVDC)

As a public service, EVDC is helping voters know their Milpitas Council candidates.

[As a contribution to local democracy, Milpitas community activist Rob Means is providing this web space to EVDC without charge.]

Last update: 2026 Sept. 2
Milpitas City Council questionnaire

On behalf of the voters in Milpitas, the East Valley Democratic Club emailed to the Milpitas Council and Mayoral candidates a wide-ranging questionnaire that includes both open-ended questions, and specific YES/NO policy questions. (Emails were sent on Aug. 22 to the addresses supplied by the Milpitas City Clerk as shown below; Garry Barbadillo's was sent to gbarbadillo@milpitas.gov)
Questionnaire topics include Qualifications, Housing, Immigration, Business, Transit, Environment, and the Budget among others.

As candidate responses to the questionnaire are received, they will be posted below as a public service to Milpitas voters and enrichment of our democracy. Candidates who have not yet submitted responses are encouraged to do so soon; voters can also urge candidates to respond. Without a response, voters are left to speculate why a candidate did not respond. That uncertainty often leads to dark thoughts. So, we appeal to candidates to be transparent by responding soon.

• Seema Kanani

Here is the Milpitas Council Questionnaire in 2 formats, editable (ODT) and PDF

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Positions on Issues: as shown, candidates answered YES or NO for each statement. (Blanks show that no answer was received.)

• HL= Hon Lien (Mayor)
• CM = Carmen Montano (Mayor)
• VM = Votaire Montemayor (Mayor)
• SS = Santosh Sahoo (Mayor)
• DA = Dipak Awasthi (Council)
• GB = Garry Barbadillo (Council)
• BC = Bill Chuan (Council)
• SK = Seema Kanani (Council)
• HP = Ha Phan (Council)

Issues	HL	CM	VM	SS	DA	GB	BC	SK	HP
Do you support raising the minimum wage in Milpitas?								Yes
Do you support a restorative justice program in lieu of prosecution?								Yes
Do you support ending bail bonds?								Yes
Do you support participatory budgeting (citizen involvement in budgeting)?								Yes
Would you support an elected rent board?								Yes
Do you support a civilian review board with subpoena power of your police department?								Yes
Will you support Milpitas divestment from fossil fuels?								Yes
Do you support funding projects to reduce the number of cars on the road?								Yes
Do you support Ranked Choice Voting?								Yes
Do you support Proportional Representation?								Yes
Do you support “amending the Constitution to make clear that corporations and other artificial entities do not have Constitutional rights and that money is not speech and campaign spending should be limited through regulation”? Pledge from MTA (https://www.movetoamend.org/pledge)								Yes
Do you support free public education, pre-school through graduate studies?								Yes
Do you support legalization with a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.?								Yes
Do you support marriage equality and the right of transgendered individuals to use the restroom of their choice?								Yes
Do you support use of Milpitas funds to develop worker-owned cooperatives?								Yes
Do you support an ordinance or charter amendment to create a public bank?								Yes

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Contact Webmaster Rob Means at 408-262-0420, Rob@MeansForDemocracy.org
    1421 Yellowstone Avenue, Milpitas, CA 95035