A Lookout View: Monica Martinez and Christopher Bradford for District 5 county supervisor

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 5

That’s why, in District 5, of the five candidates running, we support both Monica Martinez and Christopher Bradford, and would look forward to hearing both campaign into the fall and sharpening the differences between them. 

The two agree on most issues  – particularly the need to expedite CZU fire rebuilds and opposition to Santa Cruz’s Measure M – and both are problem-solvers running as change agents who say they are unafraid to speak their mind and have uncomfortable conversations. Both have strong community ties, kids in local schools and a genuine understanding based on their own lived experience of the struggle families face. 

Martinez, the CEO of Encompass, the county’s largest health and human services nonprofit, has a background working with the unhoused and mentally ill and has garnered a reputation as a change-maker since she arrived in Santa Cruz in 2010 to serve as executive director of Housing Matters. She impressed us with her knowledge of the budget, understanding of the board (she says she has been watching its decisions for more than a decade) and her sense of urgency. The county is profoundly in the services business, and she would bring deep experience to the many decisions around county contracting and service providing.

We believe she would be a strong, effective voice. 

She also is someone who knows how to compromise and work with those who disagree with her. That’s key on the board, where you need three votes to get anything done. 

We are impressed with the strong working relationship she has developed with the sheriff’s department. Law enforcement and human services officials don’t always agree on protocol, and as head of Encompass, Martinez has had to fight for programs and clients. Yet, she not only maintains a good working relationship with the sheriff, but also received his early endorsement. 

If elected, Martinez would be the first LGBTQ+ supervisor elected, a milestone that seems long overdue in our liberal enclave. She could also be the first woman on the board since 2012.

Martinez, a Felton resident, has two adopted kids and is an active parent who speaks openly about the struggle to fit in and see yourself reflected in society. We find her story – and her willingness to tell it – inspiring, fresh and sorely needed. 

In the District 2 race, Tony Crane, a mortgage loan officer and general contractor, is running on an unorthodox platform to keep Martinez out of office. He believes Martinez and the county acted dishonestly when purchasing a home in his Aptos neighborhood and turning it into a six-to-eight-bed mental services facility. We hear Crane’s complaint, one shared by some of his neighbors..

He raises legitimate points about how the board and health care providers make tough decisions about where to place health services facilities and how much finagling happens behind closed doors. We still support Martinez, who stands behind her decisions on the Aptos facility, but, as we ramp up the number of these facilities our community needs, we also will be on alert for this sort of future funny business. We hope she will be, too.   

Christopher Bradford is one of the great surprises and delights of this election cycle. A small business owner with an eclectic résumé that includes executive chef, Starbucks general manager, software engineer and photographer, he impressed us with his authenticity, his grasp of issues and his creativity in working to solve entrenched issues, including housing, reducing red tape and building a new jail. 

He’s against Measure M, but thinks the county should take a look at its land holdings and see if it can use them to build housing with a 30% affordable rate. Bradford lives in the San Lorenzo Valley and lost his home to the CZU fire. His frustration over the impediments to rebuilding fueled his decision to run for office. He has ideas of how to cut out the bureaucracy and make the process more people-centered, which we applaud and which comes only from first-hand experience. 

In our endorsement meetings, we pushed all candidates hard on tough issues including how to manage the budget, what roads to prioritize, how to get a grip on the fentanyl crisis, if we need a new jail and what the board of supervisors can do to reduce the use of pesticides in South County, an issue everyone agrees needs addressing and that Lookout has covered in news and Community Voices opinion pages. 

Bradford consistently delivered thoughtful, impactful answers. 

He’s also eminently likable. Alabama-raised, he has homespun charm and says he is a true people’s champion with six kids and what he calls “skin in the game.”  His campaign is grass-roots and not, he points out, funded by the “Democratic machine.” That, he says, gives him power and an ability to be independent. He is not a career politician or someone who aspires to use the board as a stepping stone to a bigger job. He’s staying put. 

Bradford also has a compelling personal story. He lost his son Micah, a special-needs child, at age 4, and then his first wife died by suicide, leaving him a single father of four. Bradford has less professional experience in health care and services than Martinez, but we feel the richness of his personal story compensates. 

The other candidates in the race – Theresa Bond and Tom Decker – each bring perspective and thoughtfulness to the race. Bond, a Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District trustee who runs a home business, has impressive school ties and experience poking at thorny school issues and working to find compromise. 

Decker, a realtor who is regional operations manager of BAM Homes, brought a businessman’s perspective to the race and to the Lookout forums, where his say-it-like-he-sees-it mentality added a liveliness to the discussions. He is against Measure K, the county sales tax hike, and has ideas of how to streamline permitting processes for homes and rebuilds. 

We applaud all the candidates and feel lucky we have such good people to choose from. Across the country, we are seeing a decline in those willing to run for public office. 

But, using our criteria of record, experience, judgment and how well they meet the moment, Martinez and Bradford are the better choices.

More from the District 5 race

Watch video from Lookout’s Jan. 22 candidate forum featuring nonprofit CEO Monica Martinez, small business owner and community organizer Christopher Bradford, Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District trustee Theresa Ann Bond and local home builder Tom Decker.