FOUR CANDIDATES VYING FOR MAYOR IN LEMON GROVE
Residents also will decide on tax for cannabis operations
LEMON GROVE
Within the last year, Lemon Grove mulled the possibility of a county takeover amid the city’s budget crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 hasn’t helped matters. Looking for a way to close the financial gap, Lemon Grove will be looking to voters on Nov. 3 to pass a tax on any cannabis stores in the city.
Proposition J will pay for general municipal expenses such as fire, safety, roads and recreation. Lemon Grove estimates the measure will generate from $560,000 to $1.1 million annually.
Mayor Racquel Vasquez in
2016 became the first African American woman to be elected mayor in San Diego County. She is facing three challengers for the seat — City Councilman Jerry Jones; Kamaal Martin, who ran unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in 2018; and businessman Chris Williams.
The San Diego Union-Tribune asked all candidates to weigh in on some of the city’s most pressing issues. Vasquez declined to participate.
Jones, 66, is a retired business
man, and city councilman since 2002.
Jones said homelessness is having a serious impact on residents and businesses and that a federal decision has made it impossible to restrict or ban camping on public property unless the city can provide shelter.
“This is a regional problem that will require regional solutions and those solutions will come with a cost,” Jones said. “To date, Lemon Grove has not had financial resources to commit to this problem though we do receive some services through state grants. What we need is a plan that satisfies (federal laws) so that we can get campers off the streets and into shelters. This plan would also include an enforcement component for the impacts like littering, defecating in public and trespassing. There is no magic solution but as mayor this will have my personal attention and I will be active with our supervisor and other East County mayors in finding East County solutions that work.”
Jones said he has been frustrated watching the city’s oncebalanced budget balloon into multi-year deficits, with dwindling reserves and cuts in vital services such as law enforcement.
Jones said Lemon Grove is underfunded compared to other East County cities that have