SAN DIEGO, CA—A political discussion regarding minority issues, foreclosures, education, and San Diego's financial future was held at the offices of the Mabuhay Alliance on Black Mountain Road in San Diego on Friday March 14. Participating in the event were San Diego mayoral candidate Steve Francis; candidates for the State Assembly's 78th District, Auday Arabo and Arlie Ricasa; a candidate for San Diego City Council's 7th District, Marti Emerald; and Devonna Almagro who's running for the Chula Vista City Council.
About Twenty-five people associated with the Mabuhay Alliance were in attendance to hear the candidates express their positions on local issues. They represent different businesses and organizations throughout San Diego.
Mayoral candidate, Steve Frances
San Diego mayoral candidate Steve Frances began by addressing the financial state of San Diego, and said he believes the influence of special interest groups is an element that has been affecting the City. "We have a government in San Diego that has historically, for a long time now, and that's considered part of the culture and part of the dysfunction of San Diego, that has been controlled by special interest groups," said Frances. "For whatever reason, this has been tolerated by the people of San Diego for a long time."
Frances continued by saying, "I'm going to be honest, tell you what the situation is. I'm not going to sugar coat it. I'm going to tell you we don't have money for certain things, say that we have to put money into police and fire – prioritize that, and everything else is going to have to be after that. Then I'll start tackling the corruption and the special interest [groups]."
Frances said that in order to avoid a financial crisis he believes that changes will need to be made in the structure of city government. "If we don't, we're going to go bankrupt. That's just the way it is. Sorry, I didn't cause it and Mayor Sanders didn't cause it, but we're going to go bankrupt if we don't reduce the size of government," said Frances.
When asked about the issues of gangs and the rising number of students dropping out of High School in San Diego, Frances mentioned the financial situation, bringing up the point that there are some areas that should not be overlooked with funding, one of them being the police department. "This is bad stuff, and we have a police department that is woefully understaffed. We have one of the lowest, if not the lowest, police officer per capita per thousand people in the nation," said Frances. "That's when it's fully staffed, and it's not even fully staffed. The reason it's not fully staffed is because the government allowed the police officers to be so grossly underpaid compared to their counterparts in other municipalities that we were losing a lot of these police officers."
Expounding on the issue, Frances referred to the 'Quality of Life Fund,' a plan to raise $5 million a year from private sources to be used in what he refers to as the 'Urban Renaissance Plan.' "That plan is to take that money and put it into youth programs, put it into city schools, helping teachers buy their own supplies, doing gang intervention or graffiti removal. These are things we need to do as a community, and I intend to do that," said Frances.
A question was asked regarding the financial situation of San Diego residents and the rise in foreclosures. Frances said that focusing on increasing the number of good paying jobs instead of high paying jobs could help alleviate the problem. "…We need that (referring to high paying jobs), and the whole biotech industry and telecommunications. But not everybody can do those jobs," said Frances. "We need good jobs, decent paying, where people can make a middle-class living. We need lots of those kinds of jobs. We do need the other ones that they talk about; that they like to brag about. But you want some decent, good middle-class jobs here in San Diego."
Auday Arabo
According to Auday Arabo, candidate for the State Assembly's 78th District, education is an essential element to many of the problems faced by San Diego. He mentioned the upcoming 10% state budget cut that will likely put many teachers out of work. Arabo said that he believes certain areas should be prioritized over others based on their importance when making such decisions. "Anybody can cut 10% across the board. Anybody can do that. You don't need a leader for that. You need a leader to set priorities," said Arabo.
When asked about how he will address the issue of gangs in San Diego, Arabo said, "Do you know what a gang is? I know this pretty well from being in the DA's office and working in prevention. A gang is a substitute for a family. So if we have a family structure that is deteriorating, you'll see the rise in gangs. If we have an education system that's deteriorating and no after school activities, you'll see the rise in gangs. Because youth, they have a lot of energy. If we don't focus on that energy and make it positive, we're going to have a problem."
Referencing the low numbers of voters from San Diego's minority communities, Arabo said that he believes the reason so few people decide to vote is that they don't believe their voices are heard. Arabo said, "My parents worked for the American dream. I'm living the American dream. I want to make sure that people today and people tomorrow take advantage of that, and that's why we talk about 'new hope,' because The District 78 people have lost hope. Nobody today is standing up for their issues."
"That's why I'm running for Assembly. I want to make sure we get our fair share. I want to make sure we have the voice of the community set above and come together," said Arabo.
Arlie Ricasa
Also running for the 78th District is Arlie Ricasa. Ricasa focused on improving education in San Diego while helping to ensure student entry into universities.
When asked about how she would address the needs of students from poor families facing rising tuition fees, Ricasa brought up a program that was developed while she was a trustee with the Sweetwater School District that she said has met with success. Ricasa said that the first step taken was to work with the school's curriculum to ensure that students could meet the scholastic requirements to get into the university of their choice. Then they worked with representatives from San Diego State University in order to guarantee students' admissions. Funding for the students' tuitions was secured by partnering with private businesses and others willing to support. "So you have three legs. You have a high school district educating the students, a university saying they will accept the students if they meet their requirements, and the third saying that they will pay for those students who do not have the finances," said Ricasa.
"It worked. Our application registration admittance has doubled and tripled over the last three years," said Ricasa. "When our statistics started coming in, we started seeing the success of the program. We now take that and replicate it across the country."
Marti Emerald
A candidate for San Diego City Council's 7th District, Marti Emerald addressed the issues of special interest groups, corruption, and the loss of faith in the government. "Government seems to be more concerned with government. There is an arrogance about government and its has become detached from the needs of the people," said Emerald. "In the City of San Diego, all of us like to think we are of special interest. But there are some special interest groups who go around the back door to make deals, and they have squeezed this city to enrich themselves at the expense of hard working people who live in neighborhoods that are deteriorating."
Emerald addressed the low voter participation expected for the next election by saying, "Of the people who've actually registered, and who actually care enough about this system to be registered voters, only a third of them are expected to turn out. Why? Because I think many people have lost faith with the government and the system and they believe as though they are not being heard, that somehow what's important in the neighborhoods and families isn't important with government."
Suggesting a level of solution to the issue, Emerald discussed possible methods to ensure a transparent and open government. Emerald also addressed the 10% drop in funding while providing a possible solution to the issue by directing funds based on importance, saying, "There may be programs within the City of San Diego that are actually doing just fine and don't need quite as much money as they've gotten now, and we can shift some funds," said Emerald.
Devonna Almagro
Devonna Almagro, current executive director of the San Diego County Crime Commission, is running for the Chula Vista City Council. Almagro discussed the importance of education and suggested the building of a higher education facility in Chula Vista. "This will provide for our emerging workforce, our students right now in high schools," said Almagro. "I believe if a higher education institution comes to Chula Vista it will only benefit a lot of the families who right now are suffering foreclosures, and not only are these families suffering foreclosures, but their neighbors are seeing the value of their property drop. If we bring in a higher education institution, we'll only see that our communities thrive as well."
When asked about the high rate of high school dropouts in minority communities, Almagro said that she believes getting parents involved will help alleviate this issue. I'm a big proponent of being able to encourage work with parents. Parental involvement is the number one key to be able to work together with students, administrators, and with educators," said Almagro.
She continued by saying that one of the major reasons some parents have been unable to get involved in the education of their children is that they need to work two or more jobs in order to support their families. Almagro said that better jobs are needed to alleviate the problem. "We need to be able to bring quality jobs to Chula Vista. I don't want our residents there to be driving to Poway every day," said Almagro. "That also effects the time they have with their families. I want to be able to bring quality jobs to Chula Vista. Our city also has to be very proactive about informing people and educating people about the opportunities there are for small businesses."
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