Mayor — City of Encinitas

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The biggest immediate issue facing us is ensuring that residents and businesses remain healthy in the face of coronavirus and can weather the pandemic’s economic fallout.  

Our largest protracted issue is the struggle to manage housing policy. The dynamics around state requirements, local opposition to housing, a housing crisis and the acute need for affordable housing make this a complex, long-standing, and highly contentious issue. 

Larger global and societal trends, namely a warming planet and a rising homeless epidemic, are major regional and city issues.

The issues mentioned above require leadership, compassion, hard work and deep engagement. My commitment to residents is to always work closely with the community to tackle our problems, and to make hard choices when needed to move us forward.

I will continue partnering with county, state and federal leaders to secure funding to protect public health and small businesses, provide for public safety needs, pandemic response funding and homelessness solutions. 

At the city level, we have been proactively implementing our Climate Action Plan for the four years I’ve been your Encinitas mayor, and will continue to do our part to cool the environment with everything from planting more trees to reducing plastic waste.  

Adding a modest amount of state-required new, affordable housing requires the ability to make reasoned and informed decisions, and to recognize the inevitability of difficult conversations. To quote Ruth Bader Ginsberg, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” 

I am a fourth-generation Encinitas resident who has served as Encinitas mayor for the last four years. My husband and I are raising our two school-aged children here for the same reasons that my mom, my grandma and my great-grandma’s families chose to live in Encinitas. There is simply no better place to call home. Professionally, I have worked as an attorney, and previously as a news reporter for the Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times.  

In the six years I’ve been serving in local elected office – two years on the Encinitas City Council and four years as mayor – we have substantially improved the city’s public spaces. These infrastructure improvements include four acres of new sand on the beach and sand dunes, the city’s first quiet railroad crossing, the Cardiff Rail Trail, a new Moonlight Beach Safety Center, a new park in Leucadia, and miles of new protected bike lanes and sidewalks. We have additional improvements planned for the city in upcoming years, including a new pedestrian railroad undercrossing in Old Encinitas at El Portal, and a major road improvement on Highway 101 called Leucadia Streetscape. 

These community enhancements are taking place against the backdrop of sound fiscal management of the city, and a commitment to maintaining the safety of our citizens and our high quality of life. Because of my environmental commitment, I’ve been endorsed by the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, the Climate Defenders Action Fund, and more. Due to my commitment to public safety, I’ve been endorsed by the Encinitas Fire Fighter’s Association.  

My demonstrated track record of success in public office, and my background as an attorney running my own law firm, provides the ideal foundation for continued success as our Encinitas Mayor.  

The city has commissioned a Homeless Action Plan to allow us to comprehensively understand and address the problem. The city does not have a homeless shelter. The city needs to have a comprehensive plan that considers all elements of homelessness, from prevention to mental health and drug addiction treatment, to street homelessness concerns. As the mayor I do not want people living unsheltered in our public spaces. The city will work with the county and the state, the levels of government that provide mental health and drug addiction treatment, along with our law enforcement and social services partners to proactively address homelessness.