Warren Avery for Riverside council

Residents of Riverside’s Ward 3 are sure to be well-represented whatever the result of the upcoming March election.

The two candidates seeking to fill the open seat, Warren Avery and Steven Robillard, have very similar ideas about what to do in City Hall.

Their top priorities are the priorities you’d want to hear from a candidate for city council: ensuring public safety, improving city services, promoting business friendliness in city government and tackling the homelessness problem.

Ultimately, though, we think the candidate with the edge is Warren Avery. A local businessman who serves as vice president of national accounts for Lions Floor, he has been deeply engaged with city and community issues.

With experience on the city’s charter review committee and involvement with local neighborhood groups like Neighbors Better Together, Avery will be able to hit the ground running upon taking office.

Avery understands well the need for city government to be proactive, not just reactive. If there are slowdowns in issuing city permits, that should be handled swiftly. If city streets are dirty, they should be cleaned. Lawlessness in public should be handled before it spirals out of control and becomes a bigger problem for businesses and residents alike.

“When you let everything go, those little things become big things,” he told us.

Constructively, Avery wants to ensure the city’s approach to housing policy is based on common sense, with an eye toward streamlining city processes to move things along.

It’s an approach he takes to the broader issue of economic development in the city.

“Small business growth is the key to economic development and we should be focusing our efforts to make sure that new businesses see Riverside for the economic hub that it truly is,” he argues. “With three major universities as well as an outstanding Community College system, we need to give these graduates an option to stay in Riverside to live and work.”

Warren Avery’s practical approach is no doubt why he touts the broader range of endorsements, with supporters as varied as former Democratic Mayor Rusty Bailey and conservative Assemblyman Bill Essayli. We think that will translate well to effective policymaking.