OCEANSIDE MAYORAL CANDIDATES ADDRESS CHURCHES’ TOP ISSUES

Policing, housing, renewable energy were among topics discussed in online forum

OCEANSIDE

The call to reform Police Depar tment policies and procedures, an issue nationally and locally, surfaced again this week in a live online forum for Oceanside’s mayoral candidates hosted by North County churches in the San Diego Organizing Project.

Affordable housing and renewable energ y also were discussed at the event. Members of the faith-based SDOP group explained why the issues are important to Oceanside residents, and some described personal examples of how they, their family and friends have been affected.

“Our (police) department struggles with mistrust among too many residents,” said Charli Jones of St. John Missionary Baptist Church, a largely Black congregation in Oceanside. The group recommended a policing platform with improved community oversight, annual training on anti-racism and conf lict resolution, and requirements for officers to de-escalate confrontations to avoid force when possible.

Candidate Rocky Chavez, a former Oceanside City Council member and state leg islator now on the Tri-City Healthcare District board, said he would suppor t a review of the city’s police policies.

“Our society should stand up wholeheartedly and say Black Lives Matter,” Chavez said. “We’ve had a historically bad relationship, and it needs to change.”

All of the participants said the city should conduct a national search for someone to replace long time Police Chief Frank McCoy, who has said he will retire by the end of this year.

City Manager Deanna Lorson said she initially wanted to focus on inhouse candidates for the opening. But after listening to community feedback from groups including the SDOP, the NAACP and the LGBTQ community, she placed the search process on hold to conduct a community survey that remains under way.

Mayoral candidate Esther Sanchez, who’s been on the City Council for 20 years, said she would support a national search for the next police chief, but that the best candidate still may be somebody already in the Police Department.

A good police chief is hard to f ind, Sanchez said. McCoy announced his retirement several years ago, and the city increased his salary signif icantly when he agreed to stay after no suitable replacement was found.

“We don’t really compete well in terms of salaries,” Sanchez said.

McCoy’s salary may seem high, but a new police chief would be paid less, she said. McCoy was the city’s highest-paid employee in 2019, earning just over $400,000 in total pay and benefits, according to Transparent California.

Candidates Rob Howard, a San Onofre utility worker for 30 years and past president of the North County chapter of the NAACP, and Ruben

Major, a paramedic and paramedic educator, also said they support a review of police policies.

“We need to continue working on how we actually provide resources in our community,” Howard said. “The police should not be doing some of the work they are doing.”

Some people have suggested that services such as dealing with the persistent homeless should be handed off to welfare agencies instead of the police department.

Fabio Marchi also said he would support a review. He said he knows f irst-hand about the abuse of power because he grew up under a dictatorship in Argentina where “police could pick people up and make them disappear.”

All the candidates said the city needs to build more affordable housing. Marchi said one of the best things Oceanside can do for the housing shor tage and most of its other problems would be to replace all the department heads with new people more responsible to the residents.

All 12 Oceanside mayor candidates were invited twice to the Monday evening forum, said event Chair Judah Coker of Oceanside Sanctuary. Chavez, Sanchez, Howard, Marchi, and Major participated. Councilman Jack Feller declined the invitation, Councilman Christopher Rodriguez confirmed he would attend but did not appear, and the others did not reply.

A video recording is available at www.facebook.com/WeAreSDOP.