Dr. Justin Cummings

About Justin

Dr. Justin Cummings is the Co-Founder and Associate Director of the UCSC CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research, on call Project Scientist with Integral Consulting Inc., Santa Cruz City Council member and former 2020 Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz, and is a candidate for the position of Third District Santa Cruz County Supervisor. From a very young age and into adulthood, Justin has been passionate about protecting the environment, social justice, and public service.  Justin holds a BA in Spanish and a BS in Biology from Eastern Illinois University in 2006 and a Ph.D. from the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a designated emphasis in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz in 2013.  His dissertation work focused on understanding how native trees used for forest restoration inhibited the regeneration invasive grasses in Panama.  

 From 2013 – 2015 Justin worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Florida International University where his work focused on understanding how changes in climate influenced the uptake and release of carbon in the Everglades.  In 2015, Justin returned to Santa Cruz to help co-create and serve as the Founding Program Director of the UCSC Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (UCSC DDCSP), which seeks to grow diverse leadership to strengthen conservation.  After being sworn in as Mayor in December of 2019, Justin stepped down from his position with the UCSC DDCSP to work as an environmental sensor technician and drone operator for the UC Natural Reserve System California Heartbeat Initiative.  In this role he helped conduct drone surveys of ecologically protected and sensitive areas across the state of California.  In addition to this work, he helped coordinate Drone Camp 2021 and also was the team lead for a 2021 UC NRS Post Fire Survey team that assessed the damage and regeneration of selected ecosystems from the 2020 fires.  During this time he also helped create and is the Associate Director of the UCSC CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research, which brings together diverse students, researchers, and industry partners to fuel research and innovation, and develop a diverse drone workforce.   

 After being one of the highest signature gatherers to place rent control on the ballot in 2018, Justin decided to run for Santa Cruz City Council and in 2018 was the highest vote recipient. Justin served as Vice Mayor in 2019, and Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz in 2020, one of the most difficult and challenging years in recent history for the city, and is currently a city council member.  Justin was one of two African American men elected for the first time to the City Council in 2018 and was the first African American man to serve as Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz.  During his time on the City Council, Justin has worked towards building consensus on the council and within the community to help move the community forward in a positive and productive way.  During his time on the council Justin has served on dozens of committees, ad-hoc subcommittees, and commissions that address topics such as the city budget, city revenue, land use, environmental protection and climate change, cannabis, UCSC growth, homelessness, public safety, city schools, COVID-19 recovery, clean energy, public health and the library. 

He has also submitted and passed resolutions and policies with the majority of his colleagues in an attempt to build consensus.  The policies that he has helped champion have focused on supporting diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion, affordable housing, tenant protections, programs that assist individuals experiencing homelessness, addressing accountability, transparency, and use of force in policing, environmental protection, public health, supporting Unions, and small businesses among other topics.  As Mayor during 2020, he worked with community members and leaders, across a variety of social, business, and government sectors, to bring our community together as we confronted the many challenges faced during 2020.  This included the graduate student protests at UCSC, the Recall election, the onset of COVID-19, social unrest after the murder of George Floyd, the CZU fires, and the 2020 elections.   As Third District County Supervisor, Justin is interested in prioritizing the following issues:

• Environmental protection and carbon emission reduction 

• Creating and supporting effective programs and services that promote public health, justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion

• Sustainable land use planning and affordable housing production

• Rebuilding and sustaining our community and economy due to COVID-19

• Strengthen disaster preparedness, resiliency, and recovery from Climate Change impacts
  

NAACP Candidates Forum March 28, 2022 6 pm

with candidates for County Supervisor representing the 3rd district.

1. As a new county supervisor, what would be your top 3 priorities?
   Increasing the supply of affordable housing and planning for a sustainable future

   and expediting the rebuild from the CZU fires.

   ● Climate action to reduce our carbon footprint and create infrastructure to

   mitigate the impacts of climate change.

   ● Supporting programs that support and services that promote diversity, equity,

   inclusion, justice, and public health to alleviate poverty and discrimination.

2. Do you support Sheriff's oversight by a trained (e.g. NACOLE) civilian committee, with subpoena power, that will hold public meetings and seek public input? Please provide rationale for your answer.
   I understand that there has been a desire for quite some time by the community to have

   a civilian oversight committee of the Sheriff’s department. I am also aware that in

   January of 2022, the County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the proposal

   to hire an inspector general for the Sheriff’s department within six months of that

   approval. Given that by the time the next Third District County Supervisor would be

   elected, that inspector general would have only been in place for six months, I would be

   interested in seeing how effective that position is for providing evaluations and oversight

   of the Sheriff’s department. That being said, as Third District County Supervisor, I would

   simultaneously be interested in seeing how a citizen’s oversight committee could work in

   conjunction or independent of the inspector general. Additionally, exploring how that

   commission would be formed would be of interest because should we move in that

   direction we would need to ensure that we are eliminating bias in that group so that it is

   not heavily swayed in any direction that would be a disservice to the community.

3. Do you support creating a non-law enforcement team of responders to non-felony calls for service and 911 & 988 calls?
   Yes. As Mayor, I called for a special study session to look at our current mental and

   behavioral crisis response services within our downtown, mental health liaisons who

   work with Santa Cruz police, and invited Ben Adams from CAHOOTS to provide

   presentations on the work that they do to educate the public on what is currently being

   offered and what is being done in other communities. I have advocated and made

   motions to allocate funds towards the exploration of these programs which were not

   supported by the Santa Cruz City Council, but most recently was able to get language

   included in our Homelessness Action Plan that directed City Staff to move forward with

   an item, that was amended but accepted to prioritize and support working with the

   County to support a 24/7 non-law enforcement alternative emergency crisis response

   program and to explore federal and state funding opportunities.
   
   I am also working with County Supervisor Zach Friend, as a member of the Criminal

   Justice Council, to conduct a regional review of policies, training and procedures related

   to police response to behavioral health calls. This information will help inform the

   frequency of calls related to behavioral health, which can help inform the need for these

   services. Given the direction I have provided on the Council, as County Supervisor I

   would have the opportunity to continue working with the community and cities in our

   region to help make this program a reality.

4. Do you think that the Sheriff's Office is too militarized? Explain.
   I share with the community that we need to push against the militarization of our police

   and public safety agencies. As a City Council member, I worked with the African

   American community to bring forward 26 changes to police policy here in the City of

   Santa Cruz to address use of force, equipment acquisition, accountability, transparency,

   and technology. As a community member, I also worked with Criminal Justice Council

   Chairman and County Supervisor Zach Friend to create an ad hoc subcommittee of the

   Criminal Justice Council comprised of representatives from each police department in

   the County, the Sheriff’s department, probation, each City, and Supervisor Friend from

   the County Board to review each department’s policy on these topics and other policies

   related to behavioral response. One of the questions in this survey was to determine

   whether any of the agencies received equipment from the 1033 program which allows

   law enforcement agencies to obtain military sourced equipment, to which all agencies

   responded no, including the Sheriff’s department.

   As a Santa Cruz Council member, working with the Police Chief, we also brought

   forward language to institute a policy that would require the City Council to approve the

   acquisition of all military surplus equipment, which would prevent any department from

   acquiring equipment inconsistent with the community’s norms and values. Knowing that

   this is being brought up at the State level, I would be supportive of seeing what the state

   decides to do. If this was not adopted by the state, if elected to County Supervisor, I

   would move to institute a similar policy at the County level should one not currently exist.

   I would also want to have a discussion related to what types of military grade equipment

   are currently being used and ensure that there are policies on when and how that

   equipment is used. I would also work with the community to better understand their

   sentiment on how our Sheriff’s department is using such equipment to ensure that in the

   effort to maintain public safety we are doing so in a way that conforms with the norms of

   our community and isn’t militarizing our law enforcement.

5. What do you think are the three most important practical actions the County can take to end homelessness in the County?
   ● Address the needs of the different houseless populations of people experiencing

   homelessness in a targeted way to ensure that services are targeting specific needs.

   ● Increase the number of beds and services for people who are experiencing substance

   abuse, so that people can get help when they need it and are not just left on the streets

   and subjected to continuing in a cycle of addiction.

   ● Provide more case management services so that workers providing case management

   are not overwhelmed and so that people who are experiencing homelessness are

   receiving the wrap around services that can help pull them out of homelessness.

6. How do you envision making a dent in the affordable housing unit problem here in this County?
   ● Increasing the inclusionary housing percentage in the ordinance from 15 to a

   minimum of 20%, if not more.

   ● Work with HUD to determine new ways to expand upon the production of Section

   8 housing and make the Section 8 housing program more efficient.

   ● Prioritize building more affordable housing, workforce housing, and work to

   create new affordable housing programs that promote upward socioeconomic

   mobility.

7. Do you have ideas on how to increase the impact of Measure J, the affordable housing initiative in Santa Cruz County? https://www.sccoplanning.com/PlanningHome/Housing/MeasureJAffordableHousingProgram.aspx
   Measure J passed several decades ago to designate that some of the housing built in the County be set aside for affordable housing. Given the extreme cost of housing now, the majority if not all new housing units constructed should be affordable to working families.
   I believe that we need to work with the local banks and our state and federal officials to

   better understand how we can make these programs more effective. I am also

   interested in creating a Public Bank and have been a part of the people for public

   banking group, which has been pushing to work towards the creation of a Central Coast

   Public Bank. Should we be able to stand up such a bank, I would be interested in

   working toward figuring out whether such a bank could serve as a lending institution to

   support financing homes under the Measure J program. Absent that bank, we need to

   determine how we can work to create new sources of financing to make that program

   more effective.

8. How or what would you do to increase acceptance of Housing Choice Vouchers by landlords? What would you do to open up Section 8 available housing units?
   ● I would have informational sessions open to home owners so they may understand

   section 8.

   ● I would increase the percentage of inclusionary housing to 20% at a minimum and use

   section 8 housing vouchers as a way to get to that 20%.

   ● I would work with the state and HUD to figure out ways to promote the production of

   more section 8 housing to help meet our RHNA numbers.

9. To what extent does racial equity factor in the way you make decisions? For example, if you were elected as a Supervisor, how would you operationalize the County’s declaration that “racism is a public health crisis” and what would that look like?
   I would take a systemic approach to look at the composition of our boards and

   commissions, and leadership across the county staff to ensure that there is balanced

   representation at all levels. I would look to see who we are funding to provide services

   to low income people to ensure that the organizations providing the services are diverse

   and reflect the communities they serve. I would have us take a hard look at our criminal

   justice system, arrest records, and jails to determine whether there is over

   representation of people of color in our jails, which I understand there currently is, and

   address the underlying issues to help reduce the over representation of people of color

   in our jails. I would work to ensure that resources are being equitably distributed so that

   South County is receiving adequate resources, given that there have been times when

   they have been underfunded as a community. I am also very much interested in working

   with our schools, Unions, community colleges, UCSC, and other partners in the region to

   help create education and training opportunities that can help increase upward

   socioeconomic mobility for people who have been traditionally low income in our

   community. Most importantly, I would be interested in working with the community to

   identify issues and come up with meaningful solutions.

10. What is your position on the Greenway initiative and why?
    I oppose the greenway initiative because I believe that we as a community have

    invested lots of time and money into the rail and trail initiative and we need to stay on

    course to finish that project so that future generations have access to environmentally

    friendly mass transit in the future. As an environmental scientist, we must do everything

    we can to reduce our carbon footprint and provide sustainable forms of transportation.

    Countries throughout the world are moving forward with rail and as a country that was

    once the leader in rail, we must go back to our roots and make rail a priority in our

    community. We are so very close to making rail and trail a reality and we can’t stop now.

    Rail banking is a myth, we’ve made significant progress on our trail, ripping out the

    tracks only to put them back at a later date would be very costly, but literally impossible.

    Santa Cruz once had a train that went from here to San Jose. That rail was removed

    and there is no chance of it ever coming back. If we lose the rail now, we will never see

    it again. No on D and protect the rail and trail.

11. What do you think is the largest threat posed by climate change to Santa Cruz County and what actions will you take to mitigate that threat?
    The largest threat posed by climate change is the inaction by us. We need to start

    planning for the future and taking the steps necessary today to lessen our impact.

    We’ve experienced the threat that fire poses, seen the potential impacts of drought, and

    with sea level rise, will also see threats to our groundwater supply near our coastal wells.

    In addition to this, we are experiencing sea level rise and coastal erosion, which

    threatens homes and tourism. We need to update our plans for mitigating the impacts of

    climate change. We need to work with scientists at UCSC, community members, and

    local indigenous tribes to create forest management plans that will help reduce fire

    intensity but also promote species diversity and environmental health. We need to

    continue working towards tertiary water treatment and ground water recharge so that we

    can have sustainable groundwater availability. Furthermore, we need to continue

    working toward becoming a carbon neutral community by promoting sustainable mass

    transportation, green building, building affordable workforce housing, clean energy,

    locally sourced food, and other carbon neutral actions so that we are doing our part to

    reduce our contribution to the global atmospheric carbon concentrations.