2018 November PASO Magazine

CANDIDATES MAKE THEIR CASE AT Q&A FORUM
TWO MAYORAL AND FOUR COUNCIL HOPEFULS TALK PASO ROBLES ISSUES
On Thursday, Oct. 4 the two mayoral candidates, along with the four Council
candidates gathered for a question-and-answer forum at the Paso Robles
Elks Lodge, introducing themselves before fielding questions from the
moderator, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Chris Williams, along
with questions from the public. Below, we will give you each candidate’s
response to five of the big-ticket items addressed at the forum.
By Luke Phillips
Publisher’s Note: Due to space and time constraints, the full
text of our report was posted online at pasomagazine.com/
election2018 on Monday, October 22. We hope you were
able to meet the candidates, research the issues, and make
it to the polls
Martin used his introduction to tout his accomplishments
during his past four years as Mayor
of Paso Robles and saying that his term has been
“invigorating.”
“We worked on ways to make more affordable
housing, we’ve worked on financial budgets that
have provided a fiscally responsible city with healthy
reserves and we’re all very pleased with that.”
Turning toward the future, Martin said he would
like to accelerate repairs to streets over the next year
STEVE and work closely with economic development partners
to accelerate plans for updates to public safety.
MARTIN
“Those will be my primary areas of focus next year
because those are the things that you said you want us to focus on,” Martin said.
In your opinion, what is the biggest issue facing Paso Robles and what is
your solution?
Martin said that he believes the biggest problems facing Paso Robles are
those identified by the citizens in a recent survey: public safety, economic
development and street repairs.
“Those are going to be the biggest problems for us over the next three
years,” he said. “They are high-ticket items and we’re going to have to work
really hard to make that happen.”
Martin also mentioned the unfunded liability of the CAL-PERS retirement
program as another big problem but said that the city has already
taken strides toward addressing the issue.
“The City of Paso Robles has made great strides over the last four
years including tiered hiring practices, extraordinary contributions to pay
down that debt and other strategies including teaming with our employee
groups to approach Sacramento about reforming CAL-PERS rules.”
JIM
REED
During his introduction, Reed said that although
he’s been a Council member for four years, “There’s
still a long way to go.”
“I just feel that I still have a lot left to offer the
city,” he said. “I have a lot of fight left in me, a lot
of kick left in me and I still have some good ideas
that I’d like to see come to fruition. I believe that
from the mayor’s standpoint, from the pedestal, I
would have more success and more luck and a little
better feel on how things work and I would be able
to accomplish more for the city.”
In your opinion, what is the biggest issue facing
Paso Robles and what is your solution?
With the recent boom of development and tourism
in Paso Robles, Reed said that managing growth will be the biggest
problem facing Paso Robles in the near future.
“We’ve got a lot of growth coming,” he said. “People are concerned about
it. The roads are congested already. We need to really be looking at how
we’re going to manage this future growth to where we keep our city the city
we all love to live here... How do we keep this place, this Paso Robles that
we all live here, we all love? That’s going to be a real challenge. I wish I could
say I had a real definitive answer but it’s going to be chipping at it piece-bypiece
and starting now, starting early and when the real problem gets here
we’ll be more suited to handle it.”
MARIA ELENA
GARCIA
Garcia has worked as a pharmacy technician at
the local Walmart since transferring to the area
12 years ago. She said she quickly fell in love with
the small town feel and the beautiful surroundings
and soon became involved in her son’s school and
her church. She went on to serve as one of the
founding members of the Hispanic Business Association,
a business networking organization with
63 members and she currently serves on the Paso
Robles Library board of trustees.
“Over the years I have seen our community
grown and evolve,” Garcia said. “It’s something
that we’re very supportive of. But on the other
hand, I want to make sure that our quality of life will be supported with
thoughtful public policy, which I want to make sure I’m a part of.”
In your opinion, what is the biggest issue facing Paso Robles and what is
your solution?
Garcia said that her number one priority since beginning her campaign is
public safety. She said that through her job at the pharmacy, she’s seen the
opioid epidemic first-hand along with drug trafficking along Highway 101.
“We need more police officers,” she said. “We need more cameras in the
community. If we can’t get police officers right away, we need to get more
community patrol cars. If people will see more community patrol cars out
there in the community maybe it will deter some of the things that are
happening out there.”
Garcia also recounted finding dirty needles in the parking lot of the
Walmart where she works.
“And I have to go inside and get gloves and get a hazardous material and
walk outside and that is so shameful,” she said. “And I see it every day, people
getting addicted and people having problems with it. We need to find resources
to help them.”
JOHN
HAMON
Local business owner John Hamon, the owner
of Hamon Overhead Door Co., has served on
the City Council for the past 12 years and hadn’t
planned on running again, but “there’s a lot of
things I don’t have a good feeling about walking
away from,” he said, including water and infrastructure
projects and overseeing the spending of
the proceeds from the city’s half-cent sales tax.
“Every cent of it needs to go back into our
streets and I’m going to be committed along with
other Council members to doing that — holding
our City officials accountable, living within our
means. We only have so much money and how we
spend it is very, very important.”
18 | pasomagazine.com PASO Magazine, November 2018