2020 Santa Cruz City Council Candidate
Kayla Kumar
What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
•Structural racism that creates wealth inequality, inequitable incarceration rates, and uneven access to opportunity.
• The depth and longevity of the COVID-19 economic fallout.
• A public safety model that does not address root causes of criminal behavior or criminalized behavior.
• Lack of affordable housing that can be accessed by the very low, low and moderate income levels.
• Impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.Please name one city ordinance or policy that creates negative racial impacts? Will you work to change this ordinance or policy? How will you work to change it?
The Executive Order that targeted the operations of Latino vendors. This order specifically targeted a type of economic activity – vending -- that is a common method of Latino entrepreneurs in particular. The City Council should have overridden that EO and worked with the City Manager to develop a sounder approach that didn’t rely on law enforcement. While the EO will expire soon, I will be working hard to ensure that the City meets the spirit of the recent State law that was passed that sets out to protect the rights of vendors and look deeper into the way the City Council can better balance power with the City Manager – who is an unelected and should be guided more strongly in aligning EO with the community’s values.What city council actions will you support to implement antiracism in policies, funding, training, hiring practices, partnerships or any other way within your power? Be as specific as you can.
I’d like to see the City consider a Racial Equity Impact Assessment, the like of which has been successfully integrated into City business within Seattle, St. Paul but also entire states like Iowa and Connecticut and countries like the UK. Racial Equity Impact Assessments are systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. They are used to minimize unanticipated adverse consequences in a variety of contexts, including the analysis of proposed policies, institutional practices, programs, plans and budgetary decisions. They can be a vital tool for preventing institutional racism and for identifying new options to remedy long-standing inequities regarding hiring practices, racial justice training, procurement policy and creating community safety models with community-based partners that is explicitly anti-racist.How would you effectively build a coalition to address issues of racial justice in Santa Cruz County?
Building a coalition of racial justice in Santa Cruz County will require local officials who have real, genuine, transparent relationships with people of color from all walks of life. I believe particular attention must be paid to people of color who are often dismissed from public engagement because they do not conform to the dominant culture and, as a result, these are people who experience the highest degrees of poverty, mass incarceration, lack of health access, among several other injustices. I come to this work with real ties working on the ground with these members of our community and my work has been fueled by their stories of survival throughout my career. What’s more, the entirety of my work in Santa Cruz has been focused within organizations that are predominantly of color. The deep relationships I’ve built as a result of this work will serve as a strong foundation to raise up the voices of people of color in any effort to address issues of racial justice. On top of having an existing infrastructure of relationships with the community of color, I also believe how we engage communities of color will be important to the strength of a coalition. People of color not only need opportunities to be at the table, we also need to feel safe and supported to offer the lived knowledge, experience and solutionbuilding know-how to a public process. Having real relationships with local leaders and City staff lends itself well to accomplishing this. Without this intentional approach to creating space for people of color in these processes, we will continue to replicate ineffectual approaches that center the analysis of people of color from experts and officials, not the voices of people of color themselves.How will you use your role on the city council to educate the community about racism in our city?
I will include a racial justice analysis in all of my decisions as a council member and be sure to share the process and results of this approach while contextualizing votes in public forums. I will put forward policies that include an explicit understanding of racial and ethnic implications of the way the City governs. I will continue to develop deep relationships with community groups and share my knowledge around anti-racist, liberatory models of community building and development. I will continue to open my networks and communication pathways for BIPOC to share their stories, their visions, their wisdom with our community. While I have a responsibility to be educating the community about racism, I believe it’s also important to let the voices of other people of color take up a lot of space in that endeavor and I’d be a dedicated partner in creating public forums for marginalized voices of color can speak on the issues they face to our community.What have you learned recently about your role in racism?
Given the particular moment we face around mass policing, as a non-black person of color, my job right now is to follow the leadership of black liberation leaders in my local community and beyond. When black leaders have the spotlight because of their pain, non-black people of color must recognize the importance of that moment and allow black voices to be front and center so that they may heal and lead the way forward. This is to say, my role is to continue to acknowledge my positionality as a non-black person and let that drive the way I take up space, the way I share information and make sure I’m reflecting on the nuances of racism.What in your past record will give voters confidence that you will make substantial antiracist decisions on the Santa Cruz City Council?
Most of my career has focused on supporting the well-being, liberation and empowerment of marginalized young people of color. This work has taken me from working with refugees in West Philadelphia, running an afterschool program for young black men in Central City New Orleans, working at Barrios Unidos – which involved bringing restorative justice to the incarcerated community (predominantly people of color) in California state prisons and working directly with young people (again, predominantly of color) within the local Juvenile Hall and Probation Evening Center. Through this work, I was also involved in national research that produced an evidencebased model built on racial justice and community empowerment. The model essential calls for people from marginalized groups and communities to have meaningful leadership roles in whatever community or governmental approaches to solving social problems that impact those marginalized groups and communities most. This is all to say, I see my venture into politics as a necessary extension of my life’s work to contribute to the well-being of marginalized communities of color. I am rooted and will be driven by the countless stories and lessons I’ve learned directly from marginalized community in making decisions and constantly find ways to involve marginalized communities directly in the decision-making process themselves.There have been numerous Grand Jury findings that point to a need for stronger City Council leadership. Do you support amendments to our City Charter that would help create a strong council and more oversight over city management as outlined in a recent Grand Jury Report, entitled "Failure to Communicate”? Why or Why not?
I do agree that the City Council needs more levers and options within its purview in order to create a healthier government. I’m currently investigating the possible solution of a “strong Mayor” government coupled with publicly funded elections. This would equip the City Council with more leverage to balance power dynamics that are called out in these reports. However, the person that would eventually fill the role should be the person that has earned the trust of the community, not necessarily the person who was able to raise the most money for their campaign.Please share your concrete suggestions about how you will address the high cost of living and lack of affordability for average working folks.
In the context of the current crisis, here are a few policies that I feel could be powerful stabilizing forces in the lives of average, working families:
•An eviction moratorium -- or banning evictions -- until the crisis is worked through completely.
• A rental payback program where tenants’ back pay on rent is extended over a reasonable period of time.
• A rent freeze that prevents rental rates to increase during a time when folks cannot afford to pay as it is.
• A rental assistance program where the city secures County, State and/or Federal funds to distribute funds to tenants so that they can successfully complete their rental payback plan.
• Leverage relationship with local banks to ease impact of crisis on homeowners and advocate for payback plans for mortgages. Thinking outside of the immediate needs brought on by the crisis, local governments must have a holistic, just and laser-focused approach to the housing crisis that has rendered our city one of the most unaffordable in the nation. There is an inextricable link between the lack of affordable housing and the growing instability of our local economy. I believe the council should be spending considerable energy on the development of housing that is accessible for all members of our community, knowing that our community is shortest on the type of housing that is affordable to those who make low and very low incomes. I’m excited about housing solutions like:
• Building 100% affordable housing on city land in partnership with nonprofit developers that is accessible by very low, low and moderate income levels.
• Tenant Opportunities to Purchase Act. TOPAs give tenants the first chance to purchase the home in which they live, if the owner were to decide to put it on the market. This equity building effort is making headway in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.
• A vacancy tax is a policy tool that has been successfully used in like-sized, likemarket cities to disincentivize predatory investment behavior that shrinks our stock of housing by bringing housing units off the speculative market onto the housing market.
• In the longer term, we must support emerging approaches to our housing crisis like community land trusts and regional public banking. Community land trusts are nonprofits that create pathways for the community to collectively invest in the purchase of housing units and make them permanently affordable. A public bank is a commercial bank that is owned by a governmental body and therefore makes available more public revenue, localizes our community’s wealth, and reduces development costs.Income inequality is one of the issues that creates difficulty in living in the city of Santa Cruz. Would you, as a City Council Member be willing to introduce and create a Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot program. If so, how would you propose funding such a program? If not, why not?
ABSOLUTELY! Oh my goodness, I love to see this! I have a Master’s Degree in Economics and have studied the model well. It has been successful across the world and, of course, Stockton is seeing sound results as a result of their most recent project. I think it’s potentially a great fit here in Santa Cruz. Let’s talk!The homeless population in the City of Santa Cruz has been an issue for many years. The current Covid-19 pandemic is acutely highlighting the need for safe and humane housing as well as long term food and housing security. How do you plan to work with City, County, and community to address this both in the short and long term?
The existence of homelessness is not congruent with our vision for our community and its prevalence runs counter to the compassionate core of this city. That’s why we need to focus on developing permanent, 100% supportive housing for those experiencing chronic homelessness that includes social, mental and physical health services for those who need them. This housing must be low barrier and consider the incorporation of the 3P recommendation, that is, folks are allowed to have their pets, partners and possessions in this housing. Intermediary solutions must move away from the same old tactics of intimidating, citing and jailing people experiencing homelessness. I agree with the recommendation within the Grand Jury Report which called the City and County to better fund root-level solutions to homelessness rather than over- investing in mass policing and incarceration. It’s just not working. Instead, I support expanding managed safe sleeping sites in partnership with our faith communities who are dedicated to helping those in need and are willing to leverage their land in order to build this solution for our community. I also support the development of a homeless navigation center and funding local nonprofits who are working hard to fill the gaps in service between the City and the local homeless community. Investing in public hygiene infrastructure is also desperately needed and recommended by the recent Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness.A “housing first” model may not be possible as there isn't enough permanent housing available to house houseless citizens. What do you suggest the city do for the thousands of homeless in Santa Cruz for the upcoming winter?
Please see my answer above. To add to that, I’ like to better fund indoor shelters.Are there aspects of the SC police contract that you think should be changed?
I believe there must be a data-driven audit of the responsibilities placed on SCPD that aims to understand the outcomes of their activities using a dedicated racial justice and community safety efficacy lens. Process like these include studying the needs expressed by the community when they call for help (911), identify existing or emerging pathways that can better meet those needs via more specialized, costeffective and life-affirming and scaffold that recalibration with a sound, intentional process of reallocating the needed funding. This amounts to the right-sizing of mass policing, a process that refocuses policing on actual crimes and allows for social services to address the social issues their more equipped to solve. I’m also heartened to see efforts to reform the SCPD and those that focus on demilitarizing the organization are very important in my view.Given that the SCPD spends over 1/4 of the entire city’s 2020 budget on policing (estimated 30 million of 107 million total budget) and over half of the SCPD’s budget is spent on homelessness issues. Would you as a city leader support shifting at least 5% ($1.4 million) from the current police budget toward creating actual solutions to homelessness? Why or why not?
Please see my response above. I will put forward a process that is data-driven, but also incorporates the voices of those most impacted by mass policing and incarceration, which of course, is BIPOC and people in poverty. In viewing the data currently at my disposal, I believe that at least 5% would be shifted to social services that create safety through more sustainable means, and I venture to say it could very well be more than that.Would you support creating an alternative 911 call line in a Cahoots-style triage system to address the mental health crisis, drug overdoses, and wellness checks as is now being done in Eugene, Oregon? If not, what other ideas do you have?
Absolutely! It’s such a promising idea for Santa Cruz, given our particularly ineffective legacy of asking police to manage homelessness. I think CAHOOTS would be much better equipped for this work. I was actually recently on a panel with a member of CAHOOTS and have been working with them and local community organizing groups to create the groundwork for such an endeavor. Let’s talk more!For the tenants living at the Tannery Arts Center who share the neighborhood with the homeless encampments along the river, calls made to the police are often met with hours and hours of wait time before assistance arrives. Many of these calls are concerns with domestic violence and drug abuse along the river and adjacent to the residential buildings. What do you believe is a solution to the lack of will to address the Tannery residents’ concerns for their neighborhood and the children who live there?
I’m really sorry to hear this and I understand how scary it is when you or you think someone else needs help and no one comes, or they come much later. I believe if we had a crisis response unit that was dedicated to calls such as these, the wait time would be much shorter.Where do you stand on the new library/garage?
I’m primarily concerned about three key aspects of the project concerned over the project due to the environmental impact of potentially over-supplying our parking stock downtown. I’m concerned about whether the project is financially feasible for the city to raise the additional funds (apart from Measure S) to fund the parking structure and whether that is the best use of the City’s time, energy and credit during the biggest economic fallout of our time. And lastly, I’m concerned by the number of people I’ve talked to on the campaign trail that voted for Measure S, but feel like the current project was not what they had in mind when they supported it. I believe there is too many members of the public that voted to tax themselves for a remodeled library, not a parking garage. Currently, the project is in the pipelines and the way I relate to it is to find ways to make the project serve in the interest of the average, every day person of Santa Cruz to the fullest extent possible. This means, I will be advocating strongly for the 100% deed restricted affordable units to remain in the project as it moves forward.Now that the City of Santa Cruz has just finished the historic painting of the Black Lives Matter street mural what are the top three actions you want to achieve in fulfilling its objectives with tangible policy changes and accountability towards equity, inclusion, and justice.
Make the necessary transformations in the way we create public safety that listens to the Black Lives Matter movement. • Create the conditions for affordable housing to be built so that more BIPOC can live and work in Santa Cruz • Begin incorporating Racial Equity Impact Assessments into the governing process within the City.What resources are you aware of that are being given out to the BIPOC community to ensure that our health, investment in businesses and quality of life are on par with the white population? What will you do while serving on the city council to guarantee this?
Rental assistance, cash assistance for undocumented folks, child care and food assistance programs continue to be resources that reach the most vulnerable – a disproporiate amount of whom are BIPOC – here in Santa Cruz. There are a number of organizations that set out to reach communities of color, but some lack the cultural responsiveness to truly reach people. As someone who has worked on these front lines and continues to volunteer on them, I have seen Community Action Board, Community Bridges and Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos show up strong for Santa Cruz. In my work at FoodWhat, which serves mostly Latino youth, we created a resilience fund that got over $80,000 to 80 youth and families in struggle during the most unstable portion of the crisis. I am a huge proponent of fully funding our local nonprofit sector so that they can continue to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in ways that the City, quite frankly, does not have as strong of a track record of doing.
I also believe providing a more equal access to necessary economic resources creates community safety in a life affirming way by reducing the need to engage in survival crime, particularly for youth. Santa Cruz County is 2nd in the State for child poverty – we must continue finding ways to protect our youth from the impacts of poverty and strengthening our social safety net is a powerful first step. I also believe we must help design racially just capital flows to small business of color and those owned by women and LGBT community members. I was heartened to see the microloan program from the City. Of course, the amount of money wasn’t near enough, but I think the City is in the strongest position to take on reasonable debt and funnel out stabilizing working capital to small businesses. I’d be very mindful of the way the pandemic’s impact has been compounded by long-standing inequity in the small business arena. That is to say, I would advocate for capital flows that operate using an apparatus that can identify the highest need for crisis capital and that apparatus must understand the long-standing barriers of growth for minority-owned businesses, womenowned businesses and small businesses that do not have long-standing relationships with local banks, to name the major inequities. The funding for this program is certainly reliant on the actions of the Federal government, which is not something to, of course, rely on fully, but this is all the more reason to continue advocating for state and federal funding.What is your top priority for our SC Youth, specifically the Black students who statistically are not graduating at the same rate as their white counterparts?
In working with young people of color in the alternative educational system, I see firsthand how many Black student juggle an incredibly unfair burden as a result of systemic racism and the marginalization that follows. Some student cannot go to school because they must care of a family member, work to help their family make ends meet, are locked up for minor infractions or generally feel like they do not belong there. Some students who do go to school can be hungry, tired or otherwise experiencing health inequity as a result of the generations of inequity before. One student has shared with me that they didn’t go to school on a rainy day because they didn’t have a rain jacket and walking was their only option to and from school.
The playing field simply is not level for BIPOC youth and it’s not acceptable to me. I believe increasing economic opportunity for BIPOC youth – whether through affirmative action or expansion in options for home ownership – could go a long way towards achieving real equity. I also think, specifically to schools, dismantling the school to prison pipeline is a crucial step as well. Redirecting the focus of SCPD to a more specific realm of criminal activity will undoubtedly leave BIPOC youth will fewer citations, probation hours and time behind bars.