2020 Santa Cruz City Council Candidate
Sandy Brown
What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
1. A Just Covid19 Recovery: We must make sure that the city budget is not balanced on the backs of working people and that the services on which our community members rely are not compromised; cuts should come from the top and from non-essential budget items, including consultant contracts; our efforts should prioritize community stability, including maintaining emergency eviction moratorium and exploring its extension to commercial properties to support small local businesses struggling to stay afloat while their operations have been restricted due to the Public Health Emergency.
2. The Affordable Housing Crisis: City efforts should aim to maximize low-income housing in new development through enforcement of inclusionary housing rules and other policies like replacement housing, in-lieu fee calculations, unbundled parking, and how we bring abated units back on line. As I talk with people across the city, I hear frustration about the city's perceived preference for facilitating new, high density, high end housing while making it difficult for individual property owners to build and preserve rental units. It's time to address these issues, through meaningful community engagement. We should also be utilizing/reserving city owned properties and exploring ways to gain site control over surplus state properties (e.g. CalTrans right of way) for 100% affordable housing projects.
3. Community Safety: The city's enforcement only approach to addressing so called quality of life issues and challenges facing our unhoused community members, as well as disproportionate negatives affects of over-policing. Safety can be promoted by working to ensure that people's basic survival needs are met. We need more hygiene facilities, waste management, and health and other supportive services. Health and human services are arguably the primary responsibility of the county. However, we cannot continue to shirk our responsibilities at the municipal level. Recent cooperative program planning and establishment of safe sleeping spaces are promising and all efforts should be made to make them sustainable.
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?
It is difficult to point to one specific policy. A major priority for me is investment in the under-resources Beach Flats and Lower Ocean neighborhoods, where low-income and POC are concentrated and where overcrowding, substandard housing, tourist traffic, and lack of healthy, accessible public space is prevalent. I would like to work collaboratively with neighbors and community programs to identify priority needs and work towards identifying funding sources, for example through establishment of a community benefit district. I would also note my opposition to the City Manager's Executive Order to remove street vendors (predominantly immigrants struggling with income loss due to the Covid19 Pandemic) from the Beach Area.
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.
The City Council has responded to the Black Lives Matter movement by taking positive actions to demonstrate support for POC in our community. I have supported these largely symbolic actions and want to see the city act on these commitments more concretely. I believe that we need to approach policy, program, and funding decisions with an explicitly anti-racist lens. For me that means community outreach and research to identify how current policies disproportionately negatively impact POC and developing a cohesive programmatic response to anti-racism and cultural competency training and other activities. Public agencies, including the city, all benefit from antiracist training. We can draw on the experience and expertise of local organizations, including the NAACP, SCCCOR, and the Diversity Center, and other groups who work for racial justice to expand training within city departments and to inform policy decisions.
How would you effectively build a coalition to address issues of racial justice in Santa Cruz County?
I support recent efforts to establish an anti-racism task force, but also believe the city should provide leadership in making space for community conversations beyond existing and traditional institutions and agencies. Top down decision making has been a big part of the problem in reproducing inequities. We need a more bottom-up approach to coalition building, allowing POC community members and organizations to lead and the city to show up to support existing and emerging efforts. As an individual council member I have signed on to participate in some of these community-based efforts and would like to see the city recognize these efforts and respond to their recommendations.
How will you use your role on the city council to educate the community about racism in our city?
As a white person, I am committed to taking an antiracist approach to decision making and to support community based efforts to conduct education, outreach, and other activities aimed at exposing systemic, institutionalized racism.
What have you learned recently about your role in racism?
So much! I'm really sorry I am out of time for the moment and would really like to have a conversation with the NAACP and other groups about how to take what I am learning and translate into personal and policy change.
What in your past record will give voters confidence that you will make substantial antiracist decisions on the Santa Cruz City Council?
My approach to inclusivity and meaningful community engagement has guided my decision making and leadership on the council. One example is my leadership in eliminating police cooperation with ICE at the beginning of my term, adopting a sanctuary city policy, and continued engagement with immigrant community members around economic and neighborhood issues.
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?
During my first term I have been frustrated by the culture and dynamics within city hall. I have not formulated a definitive stance on charter amendments and restructuring of city government but I think this is an area for further exploration. Iwould like to reactivate the city charter review committee and work closely with this group to identify opportunities and challenges and make recommendations that could be brought to the voters.
Please share your concrete suggestions about how you will address the high cost of living and lack of affordability for average working folks.
See my response to #1 above under “Housing Affordability Crisis”. I would also note that this is an area in which I have spent considerable time during my first term on the council and want to continue to work in the areas of affordable housing production and protection.
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?
I 100% support universal basic income. The city does not have sufficient resources to fund and operate such a program. However, we can play a role in advocating for UBI policies at the state and federal level.
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?
In the short-term, we must prioritize keeping people housed, through the eviction moratorium, support for tenant legal services accessible to folks regardless of immigration status, and expanded rental assistance to prevent evictions. We must also maintain and expand support for emergency food programs like Meals on Wheels and Second Harvest.
Over the medium to long term, I want to explore more semi-permanent and permanent transitional and supportive housing options, like tiny home villages, along the lines of those installed at the Housing Matters Coral Street campus.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?
Maintain and establish safe sleeping spaces and vehicle camping with adequate hygiene, waste management, and management asap.
Are there aspects of the SC police contract that you think should be changed?
Yes. However, the SCPD POA and PMA contracts are negotiated through collective bargaining, making this the appropriate arena to discuss contracts. I believe that rethinking how we respond to non-criminal emergencies and developing the infrastructure for appropriate alternative emergency response will set the stage for longer term conversations about police responsibilities and staffing.
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?
I absolutely believe we should be looking at the police budget and finding ways to shift funding priorities. Unfortunately, our current budget outlook provides little latitude in making determinations about shifting funds. At the moment we are looking at more than a 5% cut to the police budget. For me this will remain a priority to be pursued once the budget has stabilized and me move towards recovery.
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?
Yes! I am involved in a community working group looking at alternative emergency response models and we have benefited greatly from the participation of one of the Cahoots founders. I also support the Mayor's call to hold a city sponsored study session to circulate these ideas more broadly in the community.
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 have been in communication with Tannery residents to discuss the negative impacts of activities on the river and have begin to participate in neighborhood clean up efforts to get a better understanding of impacts. We need to work with the neighbors to identify ways to mitigate these impacts. The reality is that we will be hard pressed to meaningfully address these challenges without identification and operation of alternative, managed encampments.
Where do you stand on the new library/garage?
I oppose the library garage...more to come
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.
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?
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?