MORGAN HILL
– The City Council election picture shifted this week when
Councilwoman Hedy Chang announced she would not run for a third
term. Chang’s decision will extend the deadline to file as a
candidate for council to Wednesday, Aug. 11.
MORGAN HILL – The City Council election picture shifted this week when Councilwoman Hedy Chang announced she would not run for a third term. Chang’s decision will extend the deadline to file as a candidate for council to Wednesday, Aug. 11.
Chang said in a statement Wednesday that she and her council colleagues have achieved many goals during her eight-years of service and have some left to attain.
“I will continue to remain involved in serving the community to meet those goals,” Chang said. “Though I am open to exploring new venues of public service, now is the time to tend to my real estate business and to be with my family.”
Chang has been a central figure in a recent scandal at City Hall, but also has a significant track record as a champion for residents fighting City Hall. She and Mayor Dennis Kennedy led the now-successful battle to return medical services to Morgan Hill and she has been a key figure behind the Dayworker Center with a reputation as the town’s most successful fundraiser for special projects.
She counted among her successes, the Community Center, the Aquatics Center and keeping the Indoor Recreation Center on track. Chang stood up for neighbors objecting to a Ford dealership on Condit Road, when other council members voted to go ahead with the project.
The councilwoman, who is in her 50s, also spent three years as a school board trustee, several as planning commissioner and was, with others, behind building the Condit Road soccer fields which brought CYSA soccer teams to town.
Kennedy said Thursday that he had just heard that Chang was not running.
“I want to thank her for her years of service to the community,” Kennedy said. “It is my hope that we will be able to put this recent incident behind us and move forward in the community.”
Chang said she was encouraged that two women – Julia Starling and Susan J. Hughes – have pulled papers to run for council. She has long sought to find women who want to serve on the Planning Commission, currently an all-male bastion.
The City Hall scandal involved a private investigator hired by local attorney Bruce Tichinin to follow City Manager Ed Tewes on an out-of-town trip. Tichinin said he was trying to see if Tewes was having an affair with City Attorney Helene Leichter. Tewes and Leichter deny having an affair.
The information would allegedly have been used to ease Leichter out of advising council on a land-use matter Tichinin had before the city on which, he said, Leichter had changed her mind.
Because Chang had hired Tichinin to represent her after Leichter claimed Chang had defamed her by accusing her of the affair, it was first thought Tichinin hired the investigator on her behalf. Tichinin and Chang both deny that.
Chang was reluctant to say if the recent events at City Hall had much to do with her decision not to run again.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Chang said.
Mostly, she said, she is grateful for the chance to serve.
“To serve as an elected official was a life-long aspiration,” Chang said. “I am forever deeply indebted to the citizens of Morgan Hill who graced me with the honor of serving them.”
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning
(408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
