Los Gatos Open-Government Champion: Jak Van Nada

When the controversial, but now-dead Dittos Lane affordable housing project emerged in December of 2010, many Los Gatos residents were caught off guard, including Jak Van Nada.

"We were completely blindsided by it. We didn't know what was coming," Van Nada says of the town's retired RDA plans to build 32 units of affordable housing on a 1.58-acre right in the heart of Los Gatos.

Many residents who live within the 300-feet radius from the location—between College Avenue to the south and the Los Gatos Creek Trail and Highway 17 to the north—said they never received any notice as required by town policy.

Then, other more alarming developments began to spring up such as the ambitious multimillion-dollar and the proposed expansion of

It was enough to confuse the most careful watchdogs of the Los Gatos Town Council and Planning Commission.

In May of 2011, Van Nada formed the Los Gatos Community Alliance, a coalition of a growing number of individuals who say they want to ensure that Los Gatos' government (Council, committees, sub-committees, and staffers) apply a consistent, transparent evaluation and qualification criteria to all development projects to preserve Los Gatos' small-town character.

Unlike what he was hearing from town officials, Van Nada said the Alliance's calculations about the North 40 and Albright Way development showed there would be about 26,000 cars on the road from the two projects. "We couldn't see how in the world that many vehicles, within a mile of each, could not have a large impact on the people in that area."

for Los Gatos Patch Open-Government Champion Award in honor of

"Los Gatos local champion for open government is Jak Vannada. He has organized a large group of local citizens to get involved, ask questions and search persistently for answers. This has been no small feat in our often too laid back little town," wrote one of our readers who nominated him for the recognition.

He says the Alliance's formation is his biggest contribution to transparency at the Los Gatos Civic Center.

"We've raised the level of consciousness of what's going on with the town," Van Nada says, who now works as a business broker after owning a trucking warehouse records management company for many years in San Jose. "That's the most important thing we have done."

Alliance supporters say some of their email campaigns have successfully changed the Council's vote on some issues.

Van Nada, who's lived in Los Gatos since 1971, didn't stop with the founding of the Alliance and getting it off the ground grassroots style, he also joined Louise Van Meter Elementary School parents to address issues there and now the Marchmond Drive neighbors who are fighting the expansion of Hillbrook School.

The Indiana native, who's married and has four children, has also supported residents who live in the Bella Vista neighborhood who had issues with a developer who was trying to put what they thought were non-conforming houses on small steep lots.

Van Nada says, had the Alliance and the neighborhood not protested the project, the developer would have most likely built the homes. "The two houses looked right into the bedroom of these two residents who lived down the hill from them," he explains. "We helped raise the consciousness of the town about these developments."

Van Nada says the town government's transparency is average. He says Council members have been open to meeting with him and he has done so with Steven Leonardis, Mayor Steve Rice and Town Manager Greg Larson.

He's met twice with Larson, once this week to discuss what the Alliance feels are negative impacts from several developments on the table that will be reviewed by planners and the Council.

His biggest challenge to government access has been getting the attention of its leaders, including Larson, he says.

"Getting their attention [is hard] ... sometimes they're fairly arrogant," he says.

He praised Leonardis, Vice Mayor Barbara Spector and members of the Planning Commission whom he feels are more interested than some Council members in wanting to preserve Los Gatos' small-town character.

Van Nada notes he has obtained public records from the town clerk after requesting them in advance. However, he stresses that sometimes town staffers "overload you with information ... you'll never get through it."

One of his next goals is to help town government make emails public. "The volumes of information, without a good index system, is like when the IRS audits all your receipts and you have them in a shoe box and finding the d-- receipt you're looking for is very, very tough," he says.