City Council, Council District 3 — City of Escondido

I have been supportive and will work hard to implement an Independent Police Oversight Committee which will be comprised of members of the community, including those who have experience with the justice system. It is vital we, as a Council, hear those voices when we begin to reform and improve our police department and its relationship with the community. In 2019, the Police Department revised all of its policies and procedures without public or council input. This is wrong. No system is able to regulate and correct itself. We need to have public voices heard by our Police Department and by our Council. If you look at the organization chart for the City of Escondido, at the very top, are the people. It's time we begin to listen to the voice of our bosses in earnest.

The role and responsibility of a city council member in Escondido is fairly limited in this capacity, but I am always willing to see what services we can provide. Through my experiences in Oceanside, it is clear one a huge asset to our community is our public library. Unfortunately, Escondido has outsourced management of the library to a private company, so new programs designed to reach out to our community may be a little way off, but we need to find ways to extend our service to our residents. Our Economic Development department, charged with improving the economic position of Escondido, can also work with this population of our residents to find work. Attracting - and incentivizing - businesses to hire Escondido-first and to hire all Escondidoans will be an important step in helping these returning members of our city.

I my opinion, the three biggest regional challenges are housing, COVID recovery, and transportation. As a City Council member, it will be incumbent upon me to explore new ways of encouraging housing to be built in my city which is accessible to everyone. Beginning to implement inclusionary housing quotas in all new development is a great place to start. By setting a quota for inclusionary housing, developers would build within their new developments units which are designed - and deed restricted - to be affordable housing units. These units would not be set aside from the market rate housing and the developers would not be able to "buy" their way out of building these units via paying in leiu fees. Also, we need a strong COVID recovery plan. The City of Escondido will not be able to do it alone; we'll need partnerships with our Federal, State, and County partners to achieve this. Finally, as a city which has a member on the Board of Directors of SANDAG, we must advocate for more public transportation options and get away from building more highway miles.

After having run for office in 2012, my community advocacy and work did not stop. I continue to work for low-income, working, and senior families throughout Escondido. I have always stood next to those who voices are marginalized and most often not heard. I will continue to stand with those residents of Escondido and amplify their voices at City Hall. 

City Hall is the people house and I will work hard to ensure the doors of City Hall remain open to all of our residents. I will also work hard to make sure all of our residents feel included in their city government by beginning to translate agendas into Spanish and find funding to have translators on-site for City Council meetings (when we are able to gather again responsibly). 

Homelessness is a major concern for Escondido. Helping our homeless neighbors to get off the streets and into supportive housing should not be invasive into the lives of other residents of Escondido. Working with great partners in the field - like Interfaith Community Services - and helping them to purchase failing hotels/motels in the area to turn those properties into homeless recovery and rehabilitation facilities is a step in the right direction. A message that homelessness isn't illegal is needed to stop demonizing our homeless. Dispatching policing teams designed to handle and help homeless neighbors, instead of criminalize them, is something Escondido needs to continue to fund. 

After being publicly elected to serve as a trustee on the Palomar Health District board from 2014-2018, I was elected by the bi-partisan board to serve as Chair for three terms. As Chairperson, I worked closely with the administration to refinance public bonds that resulted in a $50 million tax savings to district residents.