San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
RECORD NUMBER EYEING OCEANSIDE MAYOR JOB
Open seat draws 12 contenders, the largest field in more than 30 years
Oceanside voters have a lot of choices to make this year, and the toughest call could be who should be the city’s next mayor at a time of worldwide crisis.
Economic recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is one of the top issues of the Oceanside campaign. Like many coastal communities that depend on tourism, it faces plummeting revenue from hotel room taxes and visitor-related businesses.
Affordable housing, pervasive homelessness and eroding beaches are among other important concerns facing Oceanside and its elected leaders.
This fall, the mayor’s office opening has attracted 12 candidates, the largest field in more than 30 years. The biggest previous mailbox-busting year was 1992, when the late Mayor Dick Lyon won his first term with 47 percent of the votes cast for seven names on the ballot.
The open seat and controversial issues combined to generate unusual interest in the job this year.
Incumbent Mayor Peter Weiss, appointed in early 2018, decided not to try to keep the position. Instead, he entered the first election for the newly created District 4 City Council seat. In addition to choosing a new mayor, the city is electing two district council members this year in the second half of its transition begun in 2018 from atlarge to district City Council elections.
Weiss, a former city manager and longtime city staffer, was picked by the council to finish the fourth term of Mayor Jim Wood. Wood was re-elected to a fourth term as mayor in 2016 with 63 percent of the vote in a field of five candidates, but stepped down a year later because of ill health.
Experience is ample among this year’s mayoral candidates. Three of them — Jack Feller, Christopher Rodriguez and Esther Sanchez — are incumbent City Council members. Sanchez and Feller were first elected to the council 20 years ago and have held their seats since then. Another candidate, Rocky Chavez, served previously on the council, then had three terms in the state Assembly and is now on the Tri-city Healthcare District board of directors. Chavez ran unsuccessfully for Oceanside mayor in 2004 and 2008.
Perry Alvarez, Fernando Garcia, Rob Howard, Ruben Major, Fabio Marchi, Alvin Mcgee, David Turgeon and Louis Uridel complete this year’s candidates for mayor.
The San Diego Union-tribune emailed all the candidates the same list of questions about
their backgrounds and positions on issues such as ways the city can recover financially from the pandemic.
“The best way to recover economically from the COVID-19 pandemic is to continue fighting for local control,” said Feller, 72, a retired businessman, in his response. “The county and cities should be the ones working with businesses to get them 100 percent open. This is the only way financial recovery can happen for our city and its residents.”
Safety measures are in place, Feller said. The city can work with businesses to help them comply and get everyone back to work.
Sanchez, 64, an attorney, pointed out that Oceanside was among the first cities to help small businesses, especially restaurants, by allowing them to stay open in outdoor areas such as parking lots and sidewalks using removable shade structures.
“We need to ensure that our COVID numbers are kept low and that there is compliance by businesses and residents ... avoiding community outbreaks, protecting our residents, workers and customers,” she said.
“So far, the city itself has not had to lay off any employees, choosing instead to do a hiring freeze and cutting the maintenance and operations budget for the short term,” Sanchez said. “Once COVID is under some level of control with a vaccine, we will need to partner with the private sector to get Oceanside back on the map with respect to tourism, as well as focus on attracting major employers to create job centers, reinventing our city’s fiscal future by attracting 21st century green businesses with livable wage jobs.”
Other candidates had more suggestions for economic recovery.
Relaxed permit and zoning ordinances for small businesses, easier public access to hand-washing and sanitation, better signs and automated communications, eviction protection and free childcare programs were on a list offered by Major, 40, a paramedic and public health educator.
“Let’s incentivize all those who are keeping the lights on to help the rest of us stay safe,” Major said.
Turgeon, 53, an ornamental horticulture and construction worker, offered a more simple solution for recovering from the pandemic.
“Open up, stay safe,” Turgeon said. "(It’s) Up to each human to take safety precautions to keep the plague in check.”
Marchi, 59, an engineer, general contractor and real estate broker, proposed a short list for economic recovery: reallocate the budget, bring in new businesses and give breaks to existing businesses, rebuild infrastructure, and cut red tape to be more efficient and responsive.
Economic recovery requires rebuilding tourism and that will take time, said Chavez, 69, a retired Marine colonel.
“The challenge is thoughtful regulations that allow business to open while protecting individuals; it is a balance,” he said.
Several of the candidates said homelessness is among the city’s top issues.
“I plan on restructuring the homeless outreach teams by removing the police officers in exchange for social workers, case managers and mental health providers to help identify why a person is in the homeless cycle in the first place,” said Fernando Garcia, 47, a retired Marine and community volunteer.
“That will help create a path to self-sufficiency and an exit from homelessness,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he also would work with the city manager, police chief and City Council to improve police officers’ training in community relations and cultural awareness.
“Police officers are the face of the city,” he said. “They are public servants who should be the most professional force in service to the community they protect.”
Uridel, 45, owner of Metroflex Gym in Oceanside, was briefly arrested in May for reopening his gym in defiance of the county health order. He said, in response to the U-T’S questions, that to recover from the financial effects of the pandemic, all small businesses should open immediately at full capacity with “reasonable safety protocols.”
Homelessness and crime are the other top issues facing Oceanside, Uridel said.
“We have an overwhelming homeless crisis in our city and we can solve this by following templates of 27 communities across America who have brought their serious homeless issues to a count of zero,” he said.
Rodriguez, 35, a real estate developer and farmer, has supported development and pushed to reopen small businesses closed by the crisis during his two years on the council. He said that as mayor he would maintain a fiscally responsible budget, improve services to seniors and veterans, and take further steps to protect “our vulnerable populations” from COVID-19.
“It’s important that we prioritize health and safety and support small businesses ... (and) that we focus on the root causes of homelessness,” Rodriguez said. “I will expand vocational job training programs and increase funding to improve access to treatment for those with mental illness and drug addiction.”
Howard, 57, a nuclear power plant operator for 30 years, labor leader, and former president of the North San Diego County chapter of the NAACP, advocated caution and partnerships while recovering from the pandemic.
“I believe our path to recovery starts with a focus on science, collaboration with the county and state agencies, and clearly communicating to businesses and residents the steps to safely open our economy,” Howard said. “We all want to return to normal, but if we continue to politicize the process, we will wind up forcing an early opening, which will lead to another closing due to rising COVID numbers.”
Community leaders should be visiting businesses and working with residents, schools and seniors to emphasize the steps needed for a safe recovery, he said.
“We cannot forget that many in our community are suffering with food insecurity, unemployment and fear of eviction,” Howard said. “Our leaders need to be working regionally. We need to share with our residents how we are going about this recovery.”
Climate change should be addressed through citywide coordination with education, transportation and the business community, he said. Homelessness goes along with the shortage of affordable housing, which must be addressed by working with the county and regional partners.
Alvarez, a computer network design engineer, and Mcgee, who runs a barbecue catering business, did not respond to the U-T’S emails.