By PK HATTIS | pkhattis@santacruzsentinel.com
The Santa Cruz decisions were much less straightforward.
The crowded race for Santa Cruz mayor featured five candidates who arrived with a range of backgrounds and varied political experience. Those who will be appearing on the ballot are Gillian Greensite, Joy Schendledecker, Ryan Coonerty, Chris Krohn and Ami Chen Mills.
After each candidate gave a brief introduction, forum facilitators started with a series of rapid-fire questions that all five hopefuls had to respond to with a silent thumbs up or thumbs down vote.
All supported ranked choice voting, public funding for elections and pledged to sign the “no fossil fuel money” and “patients over profits” pledges that the committee made available after the forum.
But there was some daylight between the candidates when asked if they would support the use of automated license plate readers as mayor. Coonerty was the only one who responded in the affirmative, which prompted subtle and direct jabs from other candidates later in the forum, including from Chen Mills who spearheaded the “Get the Flock Out” campaign.
In January, the Santa Cruz City Council decided to terminate its contract with automated license plate reader provider Flock Safety after it was revealed that the data had been accessed by out-of-state agencies, raising concerns about mass surveillance and unintended support for immigration enforcement. Some in the law enforcement community said that the technology helped local officers solve crimes more efficiently.
Coonerty was also the only candidate that said he would not accept campaign spending limits.
The event then transitioned to a period of open questions posed to each contender with limited response times.
When asked about the city’s role in addressing homelessness and affordable housing in collaboration with the county, Coonerty began by crediting the city and county with reducing homelessness rates by 50% in the past five years. But those who remain on local streets, he said, suffer from the most severe cases of substance abuse, mental illness and other afflictions that may require a different kind of intervention, such as CARE Courts or conservatorships.
Without these tools, he reasoned, areas such as Coral Street in Santa Cruz, where large numbers of people experiencing homelessness are known to congregate, essentially become an “open air drug market.” Residents have told him they’ve pulled their children from the Little League baseball program nearby as a result, something he called “an unacceptable situation.”
Chen Mills said it’s important to engage with those who are chronically homeless and pushed for continued creation of more communal temporary housing sites such as the tiny home village in Watsonville. She also said she was open to exploring programs that track this cohort through a registry to ensure they have all the services they need, which is a model that has proven effective in other cities, she said.
Schendledecker said she has been encouraged by efforts from the Santa Cruz County Housing for Health Partnership and was also glad that the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County will continue to have an opportunity to provide services. She said policing people does not help them regain housing and that the city needed to continue to establish more units so that some of the approximately 20,000 people who commute to Santa Cruz every day can save gas money and time in traffic.
Krohn said Santa Cruz needed to step up its enforcement of Assembly Bill 1482, also known as the California Tenant Protection Act, which seeks to rein in rent increases. At the same time, he said the city needed to better educate residents about tenant protections and where they can access legal services. He also criticized UC Santa Cruz for not building enough housing for incoming students.
“They’re not pulling their weight and we all know that,” said Krohn.
Greensite said she doesn’t believe Santa Cruz can “build our way into affordability” and thinks there’s an “artificial” housing scarcity. She believes the city’s affordable housing should be prioritized for local workers and that the county as a whole should target specific areas where the need is high. Greensite also said Santa Cruz should take a multilayered approach to homelessness, given that those who are homeless have varied afflictions and needs.
The candidates went on to discuss their qualifications for the mayoral role and how they would differ from their predecessor and the current City Council.
Coonerty said he will emphasize hiring frontline staff and fewer managerial positions in the city, collaborate with private companies to bring in more local jobs and engage more directly with the community outside of city hall.
Chen Mills touted her ability to foster greater government transparency and civic education through creative avenues such as social media, and pledged to make herself available before City Council meetings to talk about the agenda with residents.
Schendledecker also stressed the need to fill the city’s staff vacancies by hiring more “boots-on-the-ground” workers instead of filling supervisor-level roles.
Krohn branded himself as someone who would support local workers while standing up to developers, adding that he would pursue fewer closed session meetings as mayor in order to promote greater government transparency.
Greensite said she would adjust the current flow of City Council meetings so that councilmember discussion and debate can occur before a motion is made. She also promised to bring greater scrutiny to staff recommendations as opposed to acting like a rubber stamp.
According to Thompson, Coonerty received 34% of committee votes while Chen Mills received 29%.
(Note: 60% of the total votes of 28 cast was needed for an endorsement)