The first public showcase of this year’s crop of candidates for the Santa Cruz City Council featured seven hopefuls, multiple declarations of love for city services and not much in terms of hard choices on budget cuts. The forum, hosted by Operating Engineers Local 3 in City Hall’s council chambers, saw questions that touched on the city’s deficit, two-tier pension reform, the Measure H utility tax hike, union support, the camping ban, sanctuary city status and the UCSC long-term growth agreement. Story continues below slide show. All photos by Curtis Cartier.
“We’re still in really rough waters, and anyone who sits on this council has to be prepared to do the hard work,” said current councilmember Lynn Robinson, who’s seeking reelection.
Besides Robinson, non-profit grant writer Steve Pleich, transportation official David Terrazas, executive assistant Gus Ceballos, retired firefighter Ron Pomerantz, Planning Commissioner David Foster (who was absent and represented by campaign manager Rick Longinotti) and animal hospital owner Hilary Bryant attended the forum. They will be competing for three open seats currently occupied by Mayor Mike Rotkin and Councilmember Cynthia Mathews (both of whom are termed out) and Robinson. Noticeably absent from the debate was insurance salesman and perhaps the closest example in the field to a Tea Party candidate, Kevin Moon.
The candidates mostly agreed on issues like support for police, fire, public works and parks and recreation. Bryant touted her work helping forge a public-private partnership to “save” the Beach Flats Community Center, Ceballos hinted that the police budget could be increased to give cops “every tool at their disposal” and Pomerantz argued the need to increase youth services.
“I want to make sure kids today have same opportunities my kids had,” said Pomerantz, who also defined himself as perhaps the strongest union supporter of the bunch. “We need Harvey West open, we need open spaces for kids to grow up and be safe.”
Foster—through statements read by Longinotti—made no bones about his support for progressive tax hikes, including establishing a residential property transfer tax that would add a 1.5 percent tax to all real estate purchases. He called the idea the “give back to Santa Cruz tax.” Foster also joined Pomerantz and Robinson in supporting the proposed Measure H utility tax hike, which will also be on the November ballot and would add a 1.5 percent increase to utility taxes to support public safety.
Only a hundred yards or so away from where dozens of homeless activists are protesting the city’s sleeping ban in front of City Hall, Pleich separated himself from the pack as the only candidate to oppose the ban.
“I’m on record as wanting to abolish all sleeping bans,” said the council hopeful, who wore a T-shirt reading “I Love Clean Beaches.” “My instructions to police would be to not issue any tickets while the shelters are full.”
Robinson defended her tenure on the council, where she’s been one of the more fiscally and, at times, socially conservative members of the governing body. She pointed out the number of cuts and furloughs she has supported and made the point that the city of Santa Cruz, unlike the state of California, “has to balance a budget.”
The candidates split on issues like two-tier pension reform, with Pomerantz, Ceballos and Pleich opposing the idea, which would give fewer benefits to new employees, while the other hopefuls remained open to it. All supported the landmark long-term growth agreement with UCSC, with only Pomerantz saying he wished it offered more concessions from the university and Ceballos admitting that he “hasn’t done my homework on this issue” and ducking the question.
Many questions from the quiet and attentive audience of about 50 people didn’t get asked in the nearly two-hour forum. And many additional questions remain for the contenders before the Nov. 2 election, not the least of which is how, precisely, each would propose filling the $2.2 million budget hole that remains, despite heavy cuts and furloughs to the city’s workers.
In the meantime, look for messages to be polished, doors to be knocked on and dirt to be dug up.
“It’s a long time until November,” Foster spokesman Longinotti said after the debate. “Hopefully there will be more of these kinds of forums.”
No doubt there will.
