Challengers express views as incumbents skip Gridley forum

GRIDLEY » A recent forum held by the League of Women Voters was skipped by four of the seven candidates for the Gridley City Council. Incumbents Quentin Crye, Chris Williams, and Raymond Borges, did not appear on the virtual forum. Another challenger, Michael W. Farr, also didn’t attend.

The Butte County League of Women Voters, which posted the near 40-minute forum did not say why Crye, Williams, nor Borges failed to show up. However, challengers Catalina Sanchez, Jessica Ramos McElroy, and J. Angel Calderon all took part in the virtual forum. There are three seats up for grabs in Gridley.

All three challengers talked about the cost of utilities as a reason to run, in fact, one of them, Sanchez, called for utility prices to be the same across the board.

However, none of them specified how they would accomplish lower utility costs.

Sanchez is a longtime Gridley resident who is also a lobbyist for a nonprofit and said that she also spent time working in state assembly and senate and claimed those connections in Sacramento will help Gridley if she is elected.

Ramos McElroy has lived in Gridley for two years and is a mother of four, one of which she said is in the Navy. She said that she doesn’t believe the current council has listened to all constituents.

Calderon has lived in Gridley for 25 years and cited the utility costs and fines for the garbage pick up as reasons for his run.

He said that when he arrived in the city, it was suffering from a gang problem that he and his church members tried to address by helping youth.

He saidthat a decrease in that activity was due to that group’s help.

Ramos McElroy said that one of the first things the council needs to work on is healing divisions within the city of Gridley.

One of her ideas to improve that is to live stream City Council meetings so more people can become involved in the government.

She said that she would bring a good understanding of what the communities are to the council.

She also said that one of the main challenges facing Gridley is a lack of unity in the public, and said the City Council needs to be changed in order to fix that.

Calderon sas one of the first things that needs to happen is for the county to improve its services to Gridley.

Specifically, he was talking about services surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, he blamed the high numbers of infection rates within the city on a lack of county services.

Sanchez focused her answers on challenges facing Gridley on developing local business opportunities.

She said that’s been the same issues Gridley has today, they’ve been facing since she was a child in Gridley.

One of those is the Gridley pool, which is on Butte County’s Fair property.

Calderon argued that what makes him suited for the office is the fact that he is well known in the public, and he is a good listener.

Sanchez said that she, like Calderon, has the ability to be a good listener and will be available and active.

She said she would be open to listening to people from all sides and that will help her make better decisions.

“I should be able to surround myself with people who disagree with me who have different circumstances backgrounds than me because I need to educate myself.”

Ramos McElroy wanted to remind people that the positions are non-partisan and those things need to be put aside.