Joy Schendledecker, embarking on second mayoral campaign, wants voters to have robust choices at the ballot

Joy Schendledecker said she sometimes questions why she threw her hat into the ring for Santa Cruz mayor once again: “I wake up in the morning and lay in bed and think, ‘Why am I doing this again?’” she said with a laugh. 

But Schendledecker says it’s the issues that keep bringing her back. She, like Hector Marin, has become a recognizable name in local politics following campaigns in three consecutive election cycles. In 2022, she ran for mayor, ultimately losing to Fred Keeley. In 2024, she ran for the District 3 seat on the Santa Cruz City Council, losing to incumbent Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson.

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“Having other people running for city council when I disagree with their policy choices,” she said, “I think it’s important to me for the community to have choices and public conversations about the issues, and for me to be able to raise things that people may or may not be thinking about. And there shouldn’t be any coronations.”

Schendledecker said this time around, she isn’t looking to reinvent herself, but she’s doing her best to set boundaries and prevent burnout. When she looks back at the past four years, she said she doesn’t think Keeley “has done the worst job” as Santa Cruz’s mayor, although she said there are things she would do differently. She said as much during a Democratic Central Committee endorsement forum at the end of March, and told Lookout that opponent Ryan Coonerty had insinuated she would seek to do the exact opposite of Keeley.

Schendledecker said she was happy with Keeley’s opposition to Flock Safety cameras, but that she was not pleased with his and the council’s handling of the contentious Gaza cease-fire debate in early 2024. The Santa Cruz City Council rejected a proposed resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas after 10 hours of public comment and demonstrations outside city hall. The council ended up adopting an alternate resolution that called for peace but did not include any references to a cease-fire.

Schendledecker said it felt that the public discourse was mostly “a sham,” and that the council had put together a watered-down resolution beforehand. She also took issue with Keeley calling police into the chambers when emotions ran high.

“You might not like that behavior or feel challenged by it, but under the circumstances, no one was gonna hurt anybody and calling the police just escalates it,” she said. She said she believes the way the council handled the evening pushed people away from political discourse instead of welcoming them.

Should she be elected, Schendledecker said she wants to improve transparency, especially around sensitive issues. Rather than only holding public meetings, where it can be difficult for the public to get face-to-face time with city staff and officials, she would aim to establish “precinct assemblies” within the six city council districts to allow community members to connect on the issues and organize with each other more effectively.

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“I think a lot of people in my circles think that things are still very consultant-driven,” she said. “It often feels more top-down than bottom-up.”

Schendledecker reiterated that she is against Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers. She said many of the crimes solved with the technology are property crimes rather than violent crimes, leading her to believe that the risk of losing civil rights is too great for the benefit that the cameras may provide. The fact that the cameras are owned by private companies only exacerbates that concern, she said.

“This is not an entity that is owned and managed by the city, county or state with citizen oversight boards,” she said. “We know that these companies take the money and invest it in hedge funds, the weapons industry and in more surveillance primarily used in racist, classist ways that we as a community do not stand for.”

On crime and public safety, Schendledecker also wants to increase the city’s contribution to the county’s mobile crisis emergency response team, a 24-hour non-police response team for mental health crises.

Schendledecker noted how many basic supplies are locked up at supermarkets and pharmacies across the county. She said that shows people are stealing necessities out of desperation, and argues that the skyrocketing cost of living is the main driver of crime locally. She said she wants to see wealthier residents pay more local taxes to address the issue.

“We have people who are very, very, very wealthy in our city and county and they put so much money into defeating rent control and progressive taxation,” she said. “They could do something about it and make it less bad. I think when people feel safe and taken care of, we have less crime.”

Schendledecker also said she wants to cut what she says is managerial and administrative bloat in city departments, and instead focus on filling roles and vacancies in the “boots on the ground” positions.

Schendledecker said she does think the city needs to continue building housing, but says constructing many market-rate units will not lower rents across the city. She advocates for a community land trust for housing, which typically owns land and facilitates long-term leases to homeowners, nonprofits and other organizations with the hope of preserving affordability over long periods of time.

Regarding the closure of Housing Matters’ homeless day services, Schendledecker said it was a mistake to have relied on Housing Matters to run the program without backup plans. She also thinks that future services will need to be spread out across a number of locations.

“People have to get their heads together and pick places they can live with for transitional housing, supportive housing, mail rooms,” she said. 

Regardless of whether she wins, Schendledecker said she isn’t sure if she’ll run for office again. But then again, she said: The issues keep bringing her back.

“As a candidate, you’re sometimes like, ‘I don’t have a chance of winning,’ and then you say, ‘Except maybe,’” she said.

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