Despite different backgrounds, Monica Martinez and Christopher Bradford aim to ‘fight the status quo’ in District 5

The two candidates competing this November for District 5 Santa Cruz County supervisor, Christopher Bradford and Monica Martinez, view themselves as outsiders looking to shake up the status quo, they said at a Lookout candidate forum at Felton Community Hall on Wednesday evening. In fact, they say either one of them will be a divergence from the District 5 representatives in years past.

“Neither of us are getting confused with Bruce McPherson when we walk down the street,” Martinez jokingly said of the incumbent supervisor the winner will succeed in the district that includes the San Lorenzo Valley, most of Scotts Valley and a small part of the city of Santa Cruz.

However, there are plenty of differences between them, too. Martinez has a background overseeing service providers in the county, most notably as the CEO of Encompass Community Services for the past 10 years and, previously, the Housing Matters executive director. Bradford is a part-owner of a mixed martial arts gym in Scotts Valley and a systems administrator with Joby Aviation who dove into community activism in the wake of the CZU wildfires.

“I have used public funding to navigate some of the most complex issues facing our community,” said Martinez. “I know how public systems work, and I also know how they can fail us, and this is why I’m the right candidate at the right time for the Fifth District.”

“I know what it’s like to be on the opposite side of what the county is doing. We need change, and we need to fight the status quo,” said Bradford. “I’m ready on Day 1 not to slide into the well-worn grooves that Bruce and the establishment have created, but to start fighting that status quo and start working for change.”

The candidates started off discussing a possible county workers’ strike as negotiations between the county and its union — Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 — continue to fall short of a deal in what union members have described as particularly tense negotiations. Bradford said he supports the union members’ push for a fair contract, but understands that the county and the board of supervisors have to make good financial decisions, too. He added that negotiating a contract is no easy task, and requires thoughtful engagement with the union members.

“Sometimes you can’t go halfway. Sometimes you can only go a quarter, but you’ve got to connect with folks and respond in such a way that you’re making responsible decisions,” said Bradford. “Those union members are also our neighbors, they’re not just part of an organization. They’re people and they have needs that should be met. I would also say that we have to be responsible with our budget choices, and if that means a fight, then you’re going to have to fight.”

Martinez said she has experience at the union negotiation table, and added that because she has done so fairly, she has won the endorsement of SEIU and the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council.

“We have major challenges in this community with the cost of living and we can’t continue to meet the basic needs of our community on the backs of our workers,” she said. “I’m going to continue to advocate for SEIU 521 workers and others. I look forward to striking a fair deal because I stand with labor and with the working class.”

Martinez added that, should she be elected, she would take on the role of “facilitator” during a heated contract dispute like the current one because of her experience with working with many people from different backgrounds, her understanding of the county budget and the difficulties that many in the workforce face in Santa Cruz County.

That same budget that pays workers’ salaries also funds everything from road repairs to housing and homeless services — and it is rather tight this upcoming year. Bradford said, if elected, infrastructure would be his top funding priority. He said that, given all of the storm repairs, we have “more to do with less money,” which calls for creative and innovative solutions. He added that roads and infrastructure are more important than “almost everything” in his mind.

“You’re not just talking about how you get back and forth to work. People end up losing access to their homes, the value of their homes disappears. If you can’t get safe water, your home could end up red-tagged, and then you have nothing,” he said.

Martinez, again drawing from experience in the nonprofit sector, said she is used to working with tight budgets and inadequate funding. She remembers an instance when Encompass applied for state funding for a new behavioral health center in Watsonville, but did not get the money. After she “advocated up and down the state,” she helped secure over $9 million for the project. Martinez also said that the county is leaving too much money on the table in what it gets from the state budget, which she does not believe that the county can afford to do any longer.

“We have got to look at opportunities to take advantage of the state budget, the federal budget, and draw down every dollar that we can,” she said. “I’m ready to do that for our county as well.”

The topic of road conditions is a big one for District 5 voters, given how often storms and natural disasters can devastate the paths into and out of their communities, but it reaches far beyond the mountains. A recent civil grand jury report said that 63% of county roads are in poor to failed condition while facing an inadequate budget. Martinez said that all one has to do is look at Mountain Charlie Road — a road near the northern border of Santa Cruz County that washed out in March, leaving the residents along the road isolated and without a permanent fix — to see how the county has failed. She said the situation is “completely unacceptable.” If elected, she said that she will demand a balance between proactive fixes and emergency repairs.

“If we keep deferring maintenance, we’re going to have more and more Mountain Charlies, and it’s going to impact all of us,” she said, adding that the county should also prioritize bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in District 5.

Bradford said the biggest mistake the county made was not listening to Mountain Charlie Road residents. He said he witnessed the road continuously deteriorate until it reached a breaking point, and the situation could have been prevented had the residents been heard. He, too, would seek to balance proactive and reactive repairs.

“If you only repair the roads that aren’t in great disrepair, then the terrible roads get worse and worse, and a small problem becomes a huge problem,” he said. “You have to take care of what needs to be taken care of in the moment, and you end up paying that penny of prevention that avoids the pound of cure.”

The candidates discussed the recovery efforts following the CZU fires, something that is sure to strike a chord with Santa Cruz Mountains residents. Both expressed extreme disappointment with the county. Martinez called the response “a failure,” while Bradford puts a large amount of the blame on the county for the languid rebuilding pace.

Martinez said that, if elected, she wants to see data on every parcel that was burned, where they are in the rebuilding process, if the parcel has been sold, and whether the person formerly living at the parcel has left the community. She also said that holding regular office hours would help discern what the people really need.

“I talk to county leadership and I hear all the things that they’ve done, but then I hear from people who are struggling with rebuilding, and it’s not matching,” she said. “I want to demand accountability again. We haven’t taken lessons learned and we haven’t asked our departments what they will do differently next time.”

Bradford said that people trying to rebuild often run into issues trying to meet regulations rebuilding their old homes. He said the county told people that their rebuilding would not be treated like new builds, but that’s exactly what has happened. He said he knows older friends who are long retired and now living in trailers, who likely will never see a new home.

“It incenses me, because it didn’t have to be this way,” he said. “The county itself has discretion on permitting and how that works, so they could have let people rebuild what they had, and instead, they insisted on doing otherwise.”

Bradford said that, to him, a successful rebuild would be “rebuilding every structure that we reasonably can, while getting the county out of the way.” 

Martinez said that success, to her, would be creating a dashboard that can track where every single person stands in their rebuilding process and what barriers they are running into, as well as a clear plan for the next major wildfire.

The candidates also talked about the pump track project the county proposed in 2023 for Felton Covered Bridge Park, which divided residents. Martinez, who was on the county parks commission, said she listened intently to the community’s concerns, and believes that she and others were able to mitigate some of those worries.

“There’s a walking path around the park that would have been disrupted if we would have put a pump track in a certain place and we were able to preserve that path based on feedback we heard,” she said. “I feel like my job as a commissioner is to listen to folks, mitigate the issues that are possible, and help advise on the best path forward. I feel like I did that effectively.”

Bradford, though, said he would have put more power into the people’s hands. He said he would have met with the neighborhoods before making any decisions and either tried to poll or take a vote to see if it was something that the community really wanted.

“The pump track is going to serve the entire community, not just the neighbors who live close to it,” he said. “But what they want should be taken into consideration.”

Because both candidates claim to want to shake up the status quo, they discussed what that means to them. For Bradford, it’s doing what he’s been doing ever since the CZU fires changed his life. He added that he believes the current leadership has alienated too much of the community, and bureaucratic woes — like those within the planning department — are a direct result of “the establishment.”

“It takes grassroots support to push back against the giant Sisyphean boulder that is the establishment and the things that the establishment wants to accomplish,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to have that kind of grassroots support, and we have a voice that is much louder now because of things like CZU. People are aware of what the establishment is doing, and are standing up and pushing back. I’m part of that.”

Bradford said that while Martinez has support from state representatives, city councilmembers and other elected officials, “with support come hooks, and backs are going to want scratching.” 

Martinez said those people “know what they’re getting.”

“I am known as somebody who goes against the way things have always been done, who brings new solutions, such as changing from funding only shelters in this community to funding affordable housing with the same dollars,” she said. “I have a track record of creating change and I’m really proud of the support that I’ve earned based on my long history.”

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