Seated in front of a grocery store with a cardboard sign reading "homeless" is an unlikely place to find a city council candidate, yet such is Victor Frost. An alumnus of the Palo Alto school district and long time city resident, Frost is running for the position for the third time in hopes of gaining one of four available seats in the city council.

Adamant about issues related to unemployment, Palo Alto’s growing homeless population, and restoring a "democracy that works" to the city, Frost is optimistic that if elected, he will make a difference. "My political responsibilities at this time come down to two core issues," Frost said. "One is to restore common sense in Palo Alto city hall, and the second is to develop a new and better democracy in Palo Alto."

Frost claims that during the first two elections he participated in, the most recent being 2001 when he received 875 votes, "no one listened," allowing, he feels, his priority issues of building a better democracy and a functional homeless shelter to go relatively unnoticed. "Both [issues] have gone to a crisis level," Frost said last week. "With the homeless shelter, the Urban Ministry has the ‘Hotel de Zink’ with 13 mats rotating church to church for a 90-day stay. After 13 years … the homeless still do not have showers. You have to go to Menlo Park. After 13 years we [Palo Altans] still haven’t got it together to serve a fresh and nutritious meal every day at the same time and same place. This is a huge problem for the mentally and physically disadvantaged."

Similar to his feelings about homelessness, Frost finds unemployment to be one of Palo Alto’s largest stumbling blocks. "The thing that has changed from the last two [elections] is that there are a lot of unemployed residents that need jobs now," Frost said. "We have to go beyond homelessness; [we’ve] got to go to residents with families, who need jobs … So elect engineers like myself and management people that lose their jobs will be able to do day labor and earn $60-$80 a day and be able to come home, put fresh food on the table and gas in the tank."

Frost himself was once employed in a variety of occupations, including TV producer, quality control engineer, fish plant engineer, and mainstream coordinator, and he attended Foothill College, College of San Mateo, and Humboldt State University, according to his resume. Due to circumstances not discussed with the Paly Voice, Frost has remained homeless after his state-allotted unemployment funding "ran out."

In remedy to the number of unemployed residents, Frost has suggested day labor projects of planting the Stanford Hospital garden, planting a five-acre "homeless garden" at Stanford, and looking toward Foothill Park redevelopment projects. "In developing these programs, I will be in them, working and reporting back to the city council and the people on their progress," Frost said. "I will have three jobs: onsite inspector, city council representative, and day laborer … If I get elected, the responsibility and pressure from the people to perform is on my shoulders … I am committed — this is my home town."

As part of the election process, Frost will participate in an Oct. 1 election forum at Paly. Sponsored by "Got Space?" a local non-profit organization, all candidates are invited to make a 90-second opening statement voicing their views and position on key issues. Frost, however, finds the time restraint to be in violation of his free speech rights. "Open space people giving candidates 90 seconds for opening speech, this is not a true free-speech format … It is an insult to the free speech of the candidates," Frost said. "The people want to hear what the candidates have to say — This is commonplace. To [the organizers] I say, you don’t want to give us time, I don’t have the time. This is a note to all other forums, city council and school board included. Please give us a true free-speech format, five minutes for opening statements."

City council elections will be held on Nov. 4.