San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
2 ON VISTA COUNCIL FACING NEW CONTENDERS
Homelessness, economic recovery priorities for hopefuls
Two Vista City Council members, one finishing her third term in office and the other his first, will each face a political newcomer next month in their campaigns for re-election.
The races in Districts 2 and 3 will conclude the city’s two-phase transition from atlarge elections to district elections that started in 2018. Deputy Mayor Amanda Young Rigby, 58, hopes to return to her long-held seat in District 3, which serves the southwest quadrant of the city, and Joe Green, 41, is defending his seat in District 2, which serves residents in the city’s northeast section.
Rigby is being challenged by Katie Melendez, a 26-yearold social worker, Vista native and first-time candidate. Green will face Elizabeth “Liz” Perez, 42, a Navy veteran and general contractor who is also running her inaugural campaign.
All four candidates have expressed a similar set of priorities if elected, including re
energizing the pandemictroubled business community, solving the city’s homelessness issue and reducing both crime and auto traffic. But not all of them agree on how these goals can be achieved.
Interestingly, the biggest issue of the 2018 election, whether to allow medical cannabis dispensaries within city limits, seems to be a nonissue for the candidates this fall. Green said Measure Z — which has brought seven legal dispensaries to town so far, with an eighth set to open by year’s end — has produced five times the anticipated amount of city revenue with no increase in crime.
A resident of Vista since 1993, Rigby and her husband, D’arcy Rigby, have twin daughters, ages 26. A former city parks commissioner, she has served on the council since 2012.
Rigby said her proudest council accomplishment is the city’s 18-month-old, $2.4 million action plan for the homeless, as well as the city’s hard-earned fiscal stability. She said smart financial planning over the past eight years has eliminated the city’s deficit, built a reserve and put another ambulance back on the streets. Crime has also fallen for the past three years.
Her district faces two geographic challenges. It’s filled with creek beds where many of the city’s homeless community congregate, and it has a large percentage of homes built in the early 1950s on streets with no sidewalks or streetlights. She hopes to work with the county’s regional task force on homelessness to improve funding for the city’s unsheltered population, and she would prioritize streetlight and sidewalk installations in her district, which she sees as a public safety issue.
She also wants to bring back jobs lost to COVID-19. Although she wasn’t an advocate for Measure Z, Rigby said she believes the city could take the lead in recruiting cannabis-testing labs to its business park to meet the state’s quality-control requirements for the drug.
Rigby’s opponent, Melendez, is a first-generation college graduate and she served as an Americorps volunteer before getting in the field of social work in the area of drug and alcohol treatment.
She sees first-hand the impact that drug abuse and homelessness have had on her community and believes one of the best “treatments” for this population is housing. If elected, she would like the city to establish inclusionary housing requirements for all new developments. She would also work to create more affordable housing options, such as tiny home communities and rent-stabilized properties.
She’s also interested in building more sidewalks and streetlights to improve public safety and would like the city to improve its green and sustainability programs to fight global warning.
Melendez said her chief priority as a council member would be to improve civic engagement by holding weekly office hours and quarterly town hall meetings.
“It’s time for a new approach to our Vista City Council and a more compassionate and thoughtful approach when it comes to making decisions,” Melendez said.
Elected to his first term in 2016, Green has become well known for his exuberant personality. He’s proud of the city’s new homeless action plan, but thinks his district could use a new public park.
If elected to another term he would like to see the city lower the barriers that business owners face to help them recover from the pandemic-related recession, whether that involves reducing city fees or expanding outdoor dining areas for restaurants.
Green, who owns Green Team Realty, has lived in Vista for most of his life. Married for 22 years, he and his wife, Jennifer, have four children ages 14 to 21, who were all educated in the city’s public schools.
“I want to be known for my attitude and approach to local government. Not necessarily any one achievement, just my attitude. I approach each day and issue with a smile on my face and a positive attitude. Whether I agree or not, I want to hear what people have to say and, in the end, know that they matter,” he said.
Running to unseat Green is Perez, who arrives with a long list of ideas for changing and improving the city. She moved to Vista in 2006 after retiring from the Navy, where she served as an aviation logistics specialist. She lives in District 2 with her 19-yearold daughter and 12-year-old son, and is the owner of GC Green Inc., an 11-year-old clean energy contracting company.
Perez said she was inspired to run for office after she and her son encountered a man injecting drugs near the front door of the Vons supermarket last year. She felt new leadership could help the city do more to solve the crime and homelessness issues.
One of her first goals would be to replace the city’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department with a city-run police department, which she said would reduce wait times for emergency calls. Like Melendez, Perez advocates for finding housing solutions for the homeless, but she already has an idea of where to find it.
As a rehab contractor, she said the city could make use of the many boarded-up storefronts in shopping centers to create resource centers and housing alternatives for the homeless, veterans, low-income residents and young people who can’t afford to rent in the city.
Some of her other ideas for the city include an electrical vehicle initiative, an emergency response plan, an adopt-a-school program for businesses and the community and programs to hire local craftspeople and veterans.
“I believe creating opportunity for all has been hard to achieve in Vista,” she said. “I will work to create a Vista we are proud of.”