San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
4 LEMON GROVE COUNCIL CANDIDATES VYING FOR 2 SEATS
Incumbent and three challengers to face off in Nov. 3 election
The city of Lemon Grove was struggling with its budget long before the coronavirus pandemic shattered the economy. Earlier this year, the city’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened, and on Nov. 3, voters will be asked to pass Proposition J, which would levy a tax on cannabis businesses. They also will decide two at-large seats on the City Council.
City Councilman David Arambula is seeking re-election, and there is one other open City Council seat on the ballot, with Jerry Jones deciding to run for mayor. Vying for one of the two City Council seats are former City Councilman George Gastil, Planning Commissioner Liana Lebaron and health care worker Teresa Rosiak.
The San Diego Uniontribune asked the candidates to share their thoughts on some of the issues the city is facing, including homelessness and the city’s budget shortfall and financial challenges.
David Arambula, business consultant
Arambula said it is widely agreed that homelessness and that local governments and agencies need to be part of regional efforts to provide employment assistance, rental assistance, drug and/ or alcohol counseling and mental health services.
Regarding Lemon Grove’s budget issues, Arambula 45,
said that with one of the lowest sales tax rates in the county for the past four decades, the city has been unable to keep pace with the increasing cost of city services. He said the city will continue to seek cost-saving measures without cutting services and/or staff.
“Sadly, COVID-19 has only compounded the issue further,” he said. “Almost every city in California is facing similar challenges. Our approach and proposed solutions include investing onetime monies seeking higher yields in interest, securing a contract with a digital billboard company that would generate significant guaranteed revenues, supporting the efforts to pass Measure J, seeking federal and state grants, collaborating with the county and other local governments and agencies, among other efforts.”
Arambula praised the city’s comprehensive Downtown Village Specific Plan that captured hundreds of comments, remarks and suggestions from community members, and he said that feedback “helped develop an amazing plan for city staff and council to use in promoting the success of existing businesses and a great way to showcase our community’s vision to potential new businesses.”
He said that the City Council must “continue to make Lemon Grove a destination spot for residents and nonresidents alike for shopping, fun and relaxation. This, in turn, will contribute to our efforts to restore beautiful Lemon Grove.”
George Gastil, 57, Community College teacher and board chair for Facilitating Access to Coordinated Transportation
Gastil said because homelessness is a regional issue, the city would do best to work with county government, other cities and various agencies and foundations.
He said during his previous tenure on the City Council, from 2008-16, Lemon Grove adopted a “toolbox” of ideas to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness and that the city needs to look at how the ideas are working, or not working.
“The key thing is to connect unsheltered individuals and families with services that can make a lasting difference,” Gastil said, including transportation to facilities where medical issues can be taken care of, needs that cannot be met by the current transit system in the city.
He said the cost of city services continues to rise faster than revenues can keep up. Gastil said that about 3/4 of Lemon Grove’s budget goes toward public safety needs.
“Most cities are reducing services or raising more revenue, or doing some combination of those two things,"gastil said. “Lemon Grove is already a lean city, having reduced the city workforce by about one-third during the Great Recession.”
He said the city needs to do more research and employ “critical thinking” to come up with ideas to stretch its dollars similar to what it did in 2010 when the city consolidated its emergency services with La Mesa and El Cajon, and that “during better times, we focused on paying off pension debt and rebuilding reserves.”
He said the city needs to communicate better with residents to find out “what kind of revenue measure they will support or what services they are willing to see cut.”
Gastil said the city needs to focus on continued funding of vital city services, make economic development a priority, and work on regional solutions to promote health and safety, housing that can attract long-term residents, quality public transportation and policies to promote environmental sustainability.
Liana Lebaron, 30, Lemon Grove Planning Commissioner Lebaron said in oneon-one conversations with people in the community, concerns ranged from Lemon Grove’s lack of cleanliness, struggling local businesses and inadequate street repair. She said traffic snags and enforcing speeding laws are also in need of a closer look.
“Lemon Grove has immense potential as being branded a small townmeets-urban city, yet the city’s lack of cleanliness prohibits that potential from being realized,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is hurting our residents in terms of their comfort, property values and sense of pride in community. At the same time it is deterring people from neighboring cities who would otherwise patronize our local businesses and contribute to the improvement of our city.”
Lebaron said the City Council needs to keep the lines of communication open with local businesses owners, survey them on their needs, streamline permitting processes for new businesses and look at a new brand for itself so that businesses stay in town. She said the city needs to create an efficient plan to fix streets and enforce traffic safety laws.
Lebaron said the city’s needs to remain independent and address its finances “an immense amount of energy and dedication from our City Council and staff.
She said she is concerned about homelessness and noted that many of those living on the street need varying degrees of services because they “suffer from various social issues that find their root in troubles such as familial dysfunction, substance abuse, mental illness and social breakdown.”
Teresa Rosiak, 56, health care credentialing specialist, co-founder of Lemon Grove Improvement Council and Lemon Grove Business Improvement Group Rosiak says the homeless situation in Lemon Grove is “unacceptable,” and that she does not believe that January’s “Point-in-time” count of 13 homeless individuals is correct, that she counted 93 during one drive around the city in late September.
“We have a problem and it needs immediate attention and not just lip service,” Rosiak said. “The Sheriff’s should not be dealing with the homeless and individuals that have mental health disorders and the county has resources and we have volunteers that can provide much needed help and solutions for this problem.”
Rosiak said she has been regularly attending City Council meeting since 1994 when she fought the re-zoning of her home. “I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in Lemon Grove” and the city’s “wasteful spending has to cease and more accountability/transparency needs to be a primary focus.”
She said she heard the residents’ collective voice when a sales tax measure in March did not pass, and said the city needs to help the businesses it currently has and seek new ones to open in more than 70 vacant spots in Lemon Grove.
“Lemon Grove’s economy should be self-sustaining and more taxes is counterproductive,” Rosiak said. “We need to develop collaborations and bring private sector monies to our city to fund much-needed services for our residents.”
She said the city needs to promote safety, work on fixing sidewalks, seek downtown improvements, support the city’s businesses and youths, offer mental health resources for the homeless, offer affordable housing and more.