Q&A with Concord City Council Candidate Harmesh Kumar

On Nov. 6, Concordians will have the chance to nominate two candidates to the Concord City Council. 

In an effort to help inform voters about who their 11 candidates are and what they stand for, Concord Patch asked each one to answer three questions. The candidates were invited to do this in person or via email. The following responses were sent via email by Harmesh Kumar and is published here as it was sent. 

Connect with Concord Patch on Facebook and Twitter for updates on local election news or sign up for the Concord Patch newsletter for email notifications. 

Why are you running for Concord City Council?

Being a small business owner and psychologist with proven track records and experience in meeting the real challenges and creating various sustainable jobs, meeting the payroll, treating employees with respect and fairness makes me an excellent candidate for city council. I haven taken initiatives over last 20 years to create harmony and make the community better and I am engaged in providing solutions in our community to complicated problems.

What are the top three issues you would want to focus on as a council member? 

1. Revitalize the downtown and two Bart Stations and make them vibrant business and community hub.

2. Promote economic viability of the region such as Naval Weapon Station for quality growth, create local jobs and affordable housing and health insurance for all with help from new Health Care Reform by our president, create world-class education and training center in Concord, reduce truancy in our local schools.

3. Provide dynamic, proactive, innovative leadership to promote common good by building effective and collaborative teams with existing non-profit organizations in the city and county and with their help to find permanent solutions to homelessness, mental illness and domestic violence.

What makes you different from the current council and the 10 other city council candidates? 

As mentioned above I am engaged with the community in providing solutions to social problems like homelessness, chronic mental illness and substance abuse issues and creating sustainable jobs and small businesses in the city. It is my long term focus on community well being and for betterment of all the citizens of concord which makes me more suitable candidates then others. Nobody except me has focused on prevention rather than reactive interventions to the social and community issues leading to better quality of life in regards to safety and security at individual, family, school, and community levels for example, creating gang prevention programs, after school programs for the youth, transitional housing and supportive services for homeless and chronically mentally disabled, reducing crime rate up to zero level.With help from the community we can do this together, which I call city-community partnership model - real empowerment model.

Other Concord City Council candidate Q&As:

Marnie Sheehan-Carter
Robert Camacho
Carol Longshore
Vernon Kurpieski 
Dan Helix 
Terry Kremin
Edi Birsan

Concord Patch contacted all 11 city council candidates, giving them an opportunity to answer these questions in person. The questions have also been sent out via email for candidates to respond to in writing. Concord Patch will publish answers if and when they come in. For an email notification when candidate Q&As are published, click "keep me posted" below.