Quick Take
Kristen Brown and Kim De Serpa each brings a different skill set, but we feel both would add vibrancy, know-how and expertise to the board of supervisors.
Editor’s note: A Lookout View is the opinion of our Community Voices opinion section, written by our editorial board, which consists of Community Voices Editor Jody K. Biehl and Lookout Founder Ken Doctor. Our goal is to connect the dots we see in the news and offer a bigger-picture view — all intended to see Santa Cruz County meet the challenges of the day and to shine a light on issues we believe must be on the public agenda. These views are distinct and independent from the work of our newsroom and its reporting.
Here’s the good news about the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors races: We have a slew of excellent, energetic candidates eager to enact change.
The bad news is our state is facing a budget deficit projected at more than $70 billion, which means less money for counties, so whoever wins will have to do more with less. We’ve also seen much of the board’s veteran leadership exit in recent years, leaving questions about who will emerge as our strongest voices and what direction they will take our community.
The county budget hovers around $1.1 billion, which sounds like a lot until you realize all the services and funding needed to run our community. Think roads and parks, child care and mental health services, 911 operations, the public defender, libraries and more. Throw in the uncertainty of climate change and the unexpected recent costs of wildfires, storms and flooding, and it becomes hard to imagine how we totter along.
Our county executive, Carlos Palacios, calls our community “systemically underfunded,” which points to a need for leaders with creative ideas on how to get us the services we want and need. We also need supervisors who show leadership, who are unafraid to fight for what they believe and who have a history that shows they may respond smartly to the unexpected challenges of the next four years.
In this primary election, if no candidate receives 50% +1 of the votes, the top two challengers go onto the Nov. 5 general election. That’s why, in Districts 5 and 2, which have four and five candidates running, respectively, we are endorsing two candidates.
At Lookout, we regularly hear community complaints that the board is not innovative or active enough. That there are not enough voices in the room pushing for change, asking hard questions.
We agree.
District 2
District 2 has five candidates vying to take over for Zach Friend, the current board chair and arguably the most politically connected and savvy of the current Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
Friend has served three terms and tapped his local, state and national ties during last winter’s damaging storms both to help secure the $400 million needed for the Pajaro River levee project and to orchestrate a visit from President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
With his exit, our community loses knowledge and political know-how that we will struggle to fill. Luckily, we see hope in two candidates, Kristen Brown and Kim de Serpa.
We endorse both; each brings a different skill set, but we feel both would add vibrancy, know-how and expertise to the board. It’s refreshing to have two such strong female candidates vying for a spot on a currently all-male board. We would look forward to hearing them debate toward a November election.
Brown was practically born a politician. She tested out of high school at age 16, and by 23, she got a position working for Rep. Sam Farr, who served in the House of Representatives for 23 years before retiring in 2016. Brown has served on the Capitola City Council for eight years and is currently mayor. She is also chair of the Regional Transportation Commission and former president of the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG). She told us she “loves” policy.
She’s only 36, but her list of committees is already so extensive it makes us wonder if she has a clone. She is clearly a politician to watch and, though a fourth-generation county resident, she likely has aspirations beyond our region.
In our forums, she was among the most prepared and polished. She always has ready statistics and facts, plans and ideas. She does her homework. She says has been to every board of supervisors meeting for the past year and that she meets with Friend regularly. That’s impressive and proof she’s doing what she can to be ready to lead.
On housing, she fought for affordable housing in the Capitola Mall and for rental assistance programs and the eviction moratorium during COVID-19.
In our meetings, she said she is most proud of her work on mobile home rent stabilization in Capitola’s mobile home parks. She is against Measure M.
On homelessness, she supports temporary shelters and more transitional housing, including looking at tiny homes, an idea championed by District 1 Supervisor Manu Koenig. She also supports the sheriff’s push to build a new $200 million jail, something both we and several of her opponents question and which will likely be a future community debate.
She has working relationships with several members of the board, and has known District 3 Supervisor Justin Cummings for more than a decade.
She may be slightly more progressive than her overall district and she does lack experience in health care (her husband was once an EMT), but we think her experience, impressive work ethic and can-do attitude make up for that and that she is the sort of leader we need right now.
Kim de Serpa, too, comes with impressive credentials and a completely different skill set. A clinical social worker who has served as a Pajaro Valley Unified School District board member for more than a decade, De Serpa, brings years of health care expertise and know-how and possesses quiet negotiating skills. She is a soft-spoken doer.
Community members say she is the one to call in an emergency. She fixes problems quietly, without looking for accolades. We like that in a candidate. She also understands people and how county health care programs work, a big plus for the county government that spends so much on health and social services, and needs the expertise to allocate and review those expenditures.
Our current board lacks health care expertise, which is a huge void. De Serpa has the experience to ask those needed questions.
In our endorsement meetings, she told us she is often frustrated that board members often aren’t poking or probing in ways that would best serve people. Her experience makes us believe she will be a people’s champion and push for increased health equity. She insisted that she is not beholden to anybody and is unafraid of disagreement.
On housing, she has less experience than Brown, but we think her other experience compensates. She is against Measure M, for denser housing along urban corridors and not a supporter of tiny houses and is skeptical about the need for a new jail.
De Serpa has helped raise six children (now adults) but also spent time as a single mom. She put herself through school. She lives in Trout Gulch in the Aptos hills and – like many in District 2 – struggles daily with road conditions and infrastructure. In that, she is perhaps more representative of her district than Brown.
The third candidate, Bruce Jaffe, is an excellent public servant whose decades of work at the Soquel Creek Water District Board – particularly the impressive and award-winning Pure Water Soquel project to fight seawater intrusion – has helped us all. An oceanography and earth sciences professional for 41 years, he is an old-fashioned giver who values community service. As he tells it, his work in expanding our water resources has allowed for future growth, future affordable housing. We thank him for that.
Jaffe is friendly and a straight talker, which we like. However, he joined the race late and did not have a fully developed platform or strong grip on housing or the budget when we met.
David Schwartz has added sizzle and spark to this race and for that, we thank him. An accountant and small business man and small organic farmer, he impressed us with his grasp of the budget and desire to streamline. He makes excellent points about the unnecessary “obstructionist” nature of the permitting process and with the assertion that county staff should be more customer-friendly and try to help rather than inhibit building. He is against all measures on the ballot, particularly anything involving raising taxes (Measures K and L). He thinks we should “streamline” to save money, but he did not say how.
Tony Crane is a self-proclaimed non-serious candidate in this race and only ran to make a point about a six-to-eight-bed mental health facility he believes got illegally placed in his neighborhood.
In sum, we think Brown and De Serpa are the better choices. Both would make excellent supervisors. Their skill sets differ, but both will bring needed change and new ideas to the board and our community.
More from the District 2 race
Watch video from Lookout’s Jan. 22 candidate forum featuring Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Kim De Serpa, Soquel Creek Water District Board President Bruce Jaffe, small business owner and veteran David Schwartz and mortgage broker and general contractor Tony Crane.
