Three of the seven candidates vying for the District 1 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors met on stage at Southwestern College in Chula Vista Saturday to present their cases to the public.
Paloma Aguirre, mayor of Imperial Beach, Carolina Chavez, deputy mayor of Chula Vista, and Vivian Morena, a San Diego City Council member, are among the group trying to replace Nora Vargas, who opted to leave office in January, citing “safety and security reasons.”
District residents last November handed Vargas an easy re-election win, but she abruptly announced in December that she would not take the oath of office for her second term.
The Board of Supervisors soon called for a special election, set for on April 8.
Just under 100 people took seats in the auditorium as Phil Saenz, a political science professor at Southwestern, prompted each speaker to answer a question pertaining to their future plans for the position.
The forum’s main issues were the Tijuana River Valley sewage crisis, combating homelessness and the rising cost of housing.
Each candidate offered similar proposals for addressing border pollution, advocating for collaboration between the county and state, along with the federal government in both Mexico and the U.S.
While Chavez called for more pressure on federal officials, Aguirre said that, as IB’s mayor, she has been at the forefront of the fight and that those talks have been in progress.
Instead, Aguirre said that more pressure should be applied to the county’s Health and Human Services Agency.
When it comes to combatting homelessness, both Aguirre and Chavez emphasized the need for behavioral health facilities with adequate staffing in conjunction with offering secure housing.
While Moreno did not directly connect the need for behavioral services to homelessness, she shared the same sentiment as the other two candidates: Cities should not have to shoulder the burden alone.
“I think it’s high time that the county start addressing these issues and not let just the cities figure it out on their own. One of the biggest issues that I have also is that there’s different reasons why you can become homeless, right?” Moreno said. “I was against the unsheltered ban in the city of San Diego because all we did was push people out of downtown San Diego into other areas.
“We need to address the systemic issues of why people are becoming homeless.”
Aguirre differentiated herself from Moreno, referencing her opponent’s no-vote on the unsheltered ban, claiming that her approach as mayor has resulted in a 50% decrease in homelessness in Imperial Beach despite limited resources from the county.
“We have seen the city of San Diego’s homelessness situation get worse and worse and worse,” Aguirre said.
The candidates also addressed the potential for a stark decrease in federal funding for the county, especially regarding compliance with federal immigration officials.
Each candidate affirmed their support for the state law that calls on local law enforcement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in egregious cases.
While Morena was confident in a pledge from San Diego police Chief Scott Wahl – she said he told her that officers would not report those believed to be without documentation if they “roll(ed) a stop sign” – Aguirre said she has heard otherwise.
“I will say, based on the meetings that I’ve had with faith leaders from San Diego and from other areas, they are reporting a different situation. They’re reporting people who rolled a stop sign and have been detained. They’re reporting people representing themselves as ICE and taking them into detention,” Aguirre said.
“So that’s when things get really dicey, because that eventually costs us because we can be sued by these individuals for breaking the law, for violating their rights, and eventually the county ends up paying millions of dollars in settlements,” she continued. “We’re seeing that with deaths at the jails. We’re going to see that with these unlawful detentions, and whether, you know, you’re for or against (immigration), at the end of the day, there are laws in the books that you have to respect.”
Chavez said part of this strategy needs to be to fortify the region’s federal funding.
“We are going to be severely under attack here, locally, because, honestly, this federal government does not have our best interests (at heart),” Chavez said. “And if we don’t submit to their decisions, they’re going to attack us on our funding. So that’s why we need to create policies to defend the county, to defend our constituents and to ensure that our holistic solutions are for everyone.”
Despite their clashes of opinion, none of the candidates’ views dramatically differed as all of them are Democrats.
Though the election is officially non-partisan, party affiliations of board members play out in decision making. With Vargas’ departure, the current four-member board often splits on 2-2 votes, making the District 1 seat a defining one for future county policy.
The Republican front-runner, John McCann, mayor of Chula Vista, did not appear at the forum. McCann said via email that he was not able to attend as a result of his mayoral duties.
Those also not in attendance running for the seat included Louis A. Fuentes, a small business owner, Elizabeth Efrid, an affordable energy consultant, and Lincoln Pickard.
Voter registration ends on March 24, but the option to conditionally register is open until election day on April 8. Early in-person voting is currently available at the Registrar’s office; additional early polling places will open on March 29.
The next District 1 forum will be held at noon March 22 at the A Reason To Survive center in National City. Interpretation will be available in Spanish, Somali and Tagalog.
Those planning to attend may RSVP here.
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