Desis On The Ballot: Chirag Kathrani For Mayor Of San Ramon

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Who is Chirag Kathrani?

Chirag Kathrani, running for Mayor of the City of San Ramon, is an unconventional candidate. Never having run any political races before, Kathrani, a self-declared “political outsider”, tech entrepreneur, and businessman thought of running to prevent his opposition candidate, Mark Armstrong from contesting unopposed. “I came to know that my opponent was contesting unopposed. I thought that’s a shame in a city of 86,000 people,” he says. 

In a David vs Goliath scenario, Kathrani is opposing Council Member Mark H Armstrong who was elected to his second term in the city council in 2022. Watch Chirag Kathrani and Mark Armstrong debate here.  

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Originally from Nasik, Maharashtra, Kathrani grew up in Mumbai and is now a resident of San Ramon for 13 years. Kathrani entered the public space with environmental activism with his nonprofit called Lead for Earth where he engaged youth in volunteering for environmental causes. Kathrani admits he was warned off from entering the race by many people. “People told me, ‘It’s expensive; don’t waste your money’, but I’m a business owner, and as Indians, we also get our encouragement through discouragement. 

After signing up at the City Council to be a Mayor, he started knocking on doors “in the traditional way” to find out the issues in the community. 

If elected his top priorities will be…

…per his campaign statement:

Measure N  

Measure N is the proposal to levy 1% sales tax for public spending, police, crime prevention and traffic issues. Kathrani is opposing Measure N because of a lack of transparency. “Its wording is misleading,” he says. “At this point nobody wants more tax increases. I asked many residents and businesses about Measure N but nobody even was aware of it coming up.” 

Community engagement 

“My major point was community engagement. When I met people door to door, I realized that community engagement was broken. People didn’t know about the Mayor running unopposed or about Measure N, even though a lot of money had been spent by the city on informing people about measure N,” he says. 

Youth leadership 

Kathrani hopes to make San Ramon “a hub of innovation, where youth receive strong motivation to pursue leadership.”

Environment, parks and open spaces

“Open spaces are being exploited and if left unchecked, we risk becoming a concrete jungle.” He promises to work to ensure new developments do not put open spaces at risk.

Structural reforms to correct the city’s spending 

“I believe the current council has significant structural shortcomings in effectively representing the residents of San Ramon. To address this deficit, I propose structural reforms focused on correcting the city’s excessive spending habits”, he says.

Major challenges facing San Ramon

According to Kathrani, the major challenges facing San Ramon are:

Affordability

“Affordability is one of the biggest concerns but which hasn’t had much coverage. In San Ramon you cannot live with an average 60 K salary. In general, this city has become very expensive.” 

Jobs

“It used to be a pretty thriving city, but we are losing a lot of businesses right now, and the workforce is one of the reasons. People of San Ramon work mostly in San Francisco, San Jose, Fremont or nearby Pleasanton West. We have to create more jobs in San Ramon.” 

Housing

“There are few apartment complexes where you can find sharing. But San Ramon doesn’t have that many apartments as well. If you see the recent development, all that they have developed is three story townhomes. And the townhomes are being built in the core of the city center. In San Ramon, builders, developers don’t want to build smaller homes because it will reduce the value of the bigger homes. “

Is there an alternate plan to Measure N? 

“Yes, I do have a plan. You have to cut the extra, spend. To address this deficit, I propose structural reforms focused on correcting the city’s excessive spending. If we close the leaks that are happening financially in various areas, I’m sure we’ll have a balanced budget.”