Roads, climate, mental health, CZU rebuild fuel county supervisor hopefuls in Districts 2 and 5 during forum

Find the full video of this forum at the bottom of this story.

Lookout’s first forum of the 2024 election season included the candidates for the District 2 and District 5 Santa Cruz County supervisor seats. Both positions will see a new face in office come 2025, as the incumbents — Zach Friend and Bruce McPherson, respectively — did not seek reelection after three terms.

District 2 includes Aptos, La Selva, Rio Del Mar, Corralitos and Freedom, covering both coastal and agricultural lands. The candidates — 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 — discussed issues related to climate change and road maintenance, mental health treatment, housing and involving South County residents to a greater degree in county discussions on the stage at Hotel Paradox in Santa Cruz.

District 5 runs from Summit Road at the very northern part of the county, down Highway 9 from Boulder Creek to Felton, including the San Lorenzo Valley, Scotts Valley and the northern part of Santa Cruz. The four candidates — 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 — tackled the nuances surrounding natural disaster preparation and response, rebuilding after the CZU fire and roads (again).

District 2

District 2 has the most roads of any district in the county – 179 linear miles in total. All of the candidates agreed that road maintenance and keeping infrastructure in good shape is important, but that requires steady funding. 

Jaffe and Crane agreed that county engineers should be the ones to decide which roads to prioritize, but Jaffe said that many roads are in bad enough condition that there should be a bond measure specifically for roadwork. Brown piggybacked off of that idea, and used it as an opportunity to point out the positives of Measure K, the half-cent sales tax on the county ballot.

“One of the things that includes is fixing potholes, roads and other repairs,” she said. “So that is something we all need to consider.”

Brown added that coastal erosion is a serious threat, and residences near cliffs and ocean activity might soon be in danger. She offered ideas like building houses on stilts or raising residences to keep them from flooding: “There are options for us here, but managed retreat is going to be what we’ll have to face in the future.”

Jaffe said these sound more like “East Coast solutions,” but agreed that creativity and innovation are going to be key.

Schwartz said he isn’t a fan of managed retreat, and does not think the government should have that much say in how homeowners deal with coastal erosion. “Do we allow these people to do what they need to save their homes? I think we should,” he said. 

De Serpa also said she doesn’t like the idea of managed retreat, but that the time could come where there is no other choice.

“I think climate change will declare itself at some point, but I think we need to preserve people’s property and help rebuild our infrastructure on the coastline,” she said.”

Schwartz expressed skepticism over Measure K funds getting spent on this issue: “We’re going to put $10 million in the budget, but where’s that gonna go? Nobody knows.”

Similarly, Crane said that the main reason he is running for office is to hold government officials accountable. He said he believes the county’s general plan — a comprehensive policy document that maps out future decisions — is not well made, and that county funds have been used irresponsibly: “I think we need to go backwards a little bit and look at why we’re in the position we’re in before we start making plans about going forward.”

On the possibility of putting a mental health facility in District 2, De Serpa said she sees the high rate of homelessness as a failure to protect the most vulnerable, so she would support addiction and mental health programs and facilities in the district. Crane, citing a “lack of transparency” surrounding similar programs in District 2 in the past, was less enthusiastic.

“I think it would be great in the right place, but an eight-bed facility does not belong in a residential neighborhood, period,” he said, referring to a peer respite facility built in his Aptos neighborhood as part of Encompass Community Services’ Second Story program.

Should a facility find its way into the district, though, Brown said the best way to get residents to accept and advocate for it is by breaking down stigma surrounding mental illness: “People need mental health care, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The candidates also discussed how they would include South County residents in county politics more, as some voters feel that local politicians are not involved in South County issues as much as they should be.

Schwartz said he believes South County is viewed as the area’s “red-headed stepchild,” and that it shows with the longtime inaction around the Pajaro River levee. He said he is working on his Spanish and hopes to communicate with more South County voters. De Serpa said that her 14 years with Pajaro Valley Unified School District has allowed her to build connections and relationships she can bring to the board of supervisors, while Brown said she wants to leverage her relationships with U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta and state legislators.

On the issue of housing, the candidates didn’t all agree on a high-density approach. Schwartz said he was mostly against it, while Brown and De Serpa advocated for it, particularly around transit developments. However, they certainly agreed that affordable housing is desperately needed, and that there’s too much red tape preventing building.

“It’d be nice if all new housing was affordable, but it’s a pipe dream,” said Jaffe. “Developers develop to make money.”

District 5

The district is still reeling from the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire in August 2020, with just a fraction of the 911 houses destroyed having been rebuilt nearly four years later. So, of course, expediting rebuild remains one of the biggest issues in District 5.

The candidates unanimously agreed that, the way things are moving now, there is no way that everyone who lost a home will be able to rebuild. Bradford said he can be the strong advocate that the district needs.

“The person in the [District 5] seat needs to be a bridge between the federal and state government and the folks down here,” he said. “There are programs in California for disaster recovery, but no one can get a response, so I’ll be the one to ring that bell.”

Martinez added that the county’s response to rebuilding has been “completely unacceptable” and that the next District 5 supervisor should prioritize improving the county planning department and start tracking the names and addresses of people who need to rebuild.

“If there’s something at the local level that we can do, we need to clear that up as soon as we can,” she said. “If we don’t do something now, we’re all going to be next. We’re all going to face disasters, and we’ve got to create a better system today for the future of this county.”

Decker blamed excessive bureaucratic requirements for preventing a faster rebuild — and that making sure that everything is “safe” could be a drawback.

“There is a culture, and the culture is, ‘We want you to be safe,’” he said, adding that in this case, the government should take a back seat. “The problem about being safe is that we’re all gonna get old and sick and die, so none of us are really safe.”

Bond added that many people she knows dread dealing with the planning department.

“There is a sense of fear, my neighbors wouldn’t apply for [government loans] because they’re afraid someone will come walk their property, it’ll be reappraised, and they’ll be fined,” she said. “So they won’t ask for help.”

Like the District 2 candidates, the District 5 candidates expressed dissatisfaction with road maintenance.

“It’s a public safety issue – we’ve had main arteries coming in and out of the San Lorenzo Valley that have been closed for months,” said Martinez. “It impacts safety, economic development and everybody here.”

Bond floated the idea of a bond measure for the roads as well, in order to get deferred maintenance off the ground and get ahead of future damage. Bradford, however, wants to avoid bonds as much as possible by leveraging relationships with federal and state representatives.

“It has been many years, and I’ve yet to hear a single explanation for why it’s taken three, four years to reimburse us for promises that [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] made,” he said, and added that he admires state Sen. John Laird for being effective at bringing state money into the community. “That’s the type of relationship you have to cultivate to fix these problems.”

The candidates agreed that they feel as though the current board of supervisors is on “autopilot,” or as Decker put it, “comatose,” and that county staff hold more power than elected officials. Bradford said that kind of culture means that great ideas can end up going nowhere: “The only way to fix that is to change the people we have on top and do something new.”

Martinez said her work as CEO of nonprofit Encompass Community Services will allow her to do just that, since she’s used to being a “pain in the butt” to the county.

“We haven’t had a representative who’s ready to advocate for the community and be part of San Lorenzo Valley, advocating for change,” she said. “I’m going to bring that sense of accountability.”

Bond said that working in Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District has taught her that sometimes, unfortunately, a lot of turnover is needed to truly change things. She said she helped recruit a new superintendent who built his “dream team,” and has seen great results.

“I think you have to have a positive attitude, partner with people and work to make the change for accountability,” she said. “You can’t just go in and start kicking butt, because you will meet resistance.”

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