Community voices needed to remove Planning Commissioner Ray “R” Wang
The new City Council has begun to undo the damage of the Better Cupertino-dominated Council with a powerful governance reform package and a response to the Civil Grand Jury Report which reprimanded the last Council. For Cupertino & its democracy to truly move forward–where all voices feel valued and respected–we must now also hold our appointed officials accountable for their past actions. That is why Cupertino voices demand the removal of Planning Commissioner R. Wang, who has repeatedly abused his position of power to harass residents and leaders in the community. City Council has agendized his removal for the March 7 City Council meeting.
Sign up to attend the meeting (virtually or in person) and give comment. We will need many voices present to successfully remove him from office!
The removal of Commissioner Wang is long overdue, and the City Council should take action NOW–residents have called for his removal for over 3 years! He has not once apologized for his actions, but the prior City Council nonetheless refused to reprimand him as their core political supporter and donor. The repeated behaviors of Commissioner Wang exhibit an inability to work with others in a leadership capacity–he aggressively lashes out at others who disagree with him and seeks to damage others’ livelihood when he does not get what he wants.
Our officials should ethically represent the people of Cupertino, but Commissioner Wang has repeatedly shown concerning past behavior that is not what is expected of our leaders. He sexually harassed* a City Councilmember in Redwood City (he was a planning commissioner there) by signing her up for porn. Instead of admitting the truth, he claims that developer interests hacked his computer. From a Spotlight article: “Wang countered that he believes Foust was signed up for pornography websites by “developer interests,” which he alleges hacked into his computer network in an attempt to frame him due to his pushback at the time against using recycled water in development projects.” He avoided trial on felony identity theft charges and pled no contest to a cyberstalking misdemeanor for which he was originally given a custodial sentence.
While a sitting Planning Commissioner City official, he urged fellow residents to call the employers of pro-housing activists to try to get them fired from their jobs. He said for verbatim (“Next time you get harassed by a YIMBY track down their employer and send their HR, Legal, and CEO a letter outlining their YIMBY stance, and all their tweets, their digital and social comms to show their lack of civility. It goes a long way to getting them reprimanded and in some cases a dose of reality.”)
This pattern of behavior is unacceptable from any community member, much less an appointed official.
— Notes —
*while he pled not guilty, the charges were only dismissed by a negotiated a plea deal)