‘I’m playing the lottery twice a week:’ Newark councilman resigns, says he’s priced out of town
NEWARK — Councilman Mike Bucci is resigning before his third terms ends, saying he can no longer afford to live in the city he represents.
Bucci, the self-proclaimed “most handsome councilmember in an eyepatch ever,” is not ruling out leaving the city entirely should his luck change.
“I’m playing the lottery twice a week,” he said Friday, calling it a last resort.
But odds are Bucci will move out of Newark because he wants to purchase a home. He is planning to move to Oxnard in Ventura County.
Bucci said the salary he earns from a San Leandro-based construction company, even when coupled with the roughly $13,000 he earns a year as a councilman, is nowhere near enough to land him a proper home for his wife and daughter in Newark.
He said his landlord recently died, and though the surviving family has no immediate plans to sell the house he is in, “I can’t take any chances. This is a million dollar house we’re in.”
Mayor Mike Hannon was saddened by Bucci’s resignation letter sent Wednesday but was not surprised by it. He understands, recalling how different the Bay Area housing market was when his family left their rental unit and found their first home here in 1985, purchased with help from family.
“The magnitude in terms of dollar amounts is just significantly much higher,” he said. “I know a lot of young couples are able to buy homes because they are making sacrifices. The struggles remain kind of the same.”
Homes in Newark are now costing more than a million dollars — or close to it, Bucci said.
Before resigning, Bucci, 47, sent pleas on social media about how he and his wife, who works for the Dublin San Ramon Services District, tried several times over the past few years to buy a house with a $60,000 down payment and 785 credit score to no avail, he wrote.
“We tried over the years. We tried a lot,” he said in an interview. “It was never enough. And a bank won’t give you a loan that’s worth more than your house. There’s nothing you can do…It’s heartbreaking. And eventually you just throw in the towel.”
He said he and his wife and daughter are now moving to Oxnard into a family-owned two-bedroom condominium where his grandmother currently resides.
“That’s the best option for us,” Bucci said. “It’s difficult because we don’t have a life there. Our life is here. But the truth is all of our family has left here.”
The councilman pointed out publicly on social media what he says is the cheapest house in town: a 1920s-era home on Olive Street, with an asking price of $999,000 and old cars, trash and litter outside. He estimated he wouldn’t be able to pay off the mortgage for years.
“I just had to be honest with myself…Is killing myself to pay a mortgage that’s worth more than both of our salaries worth it?” Bucci questioned. “I’ll probably be dead before I’m 77 and my poor wife would be stuck with it and probably have to eventually sell it anyways.”
Or, he wagers, he could afford something cheaper he saw on Facebook Marketplace: a 29-foot, 1996 Winnebago Minnie Winnie with a Ford F350 Super Duty 7.4-liter V8 engine and a kitchenette, bedroom and living space.
“Even though you know you can’t win, sometimes you’ve just got to fight the good fight, man,” Bucci said. “This sucks, man. I’m not enjoying this right now.”
Since being elected in 2014, he’s been credited with helping open the city’s new civic center, which includes a new City Hall, police station and library, as well as the first dog park and skatepark.
“There’s a number of things that we’ve been working on that I unfortunately won’t see come to fruition,” Bucci said. The list includes a first-time homebuyer program which would award families a prospective $50,000 to buy their first home – something he said wouldn’t even make a dent in a mortgage for people like himself.
The Newark City Council is accepting applications to fill Bucci’s vacancy through July 5. Afterward, the council will hold a special meeting on July 8 to consider the new applicants.
As for Bucci’s tenure as councilman, Hannon said, “hopefully if he looks back, he’ll look back fondly and proudly.”