2020 Santa Cruz City Council Candidate
Sonja Brunner
What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
My top priorities are all tied to health and equity especially with COVID-19 and CZU Fire impacts: affordable housing solutions, public health and safety solutions, economic recovery and sustainability, racial and social equity, and climate sustainability
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?
Off the top of my head I’m not aware of any specific ordinance or policy. I would love to learn about any, so that steps can be made towards improving or changing them. Perhaps the current ban on street vending in the beach area would be an example that has had a negative impact on latino street vendors. The City has to make sure they are working to create an appropriate program and system that is safe for the public, yet equitable.
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.
If it’s not already being done, I think it will be important to conduct racial justice and equity audits of city departments to ensure that policies and institutional practices support racial equity and inclusion and are making progress in dismantling racist policies that cause harm to Black lives and communities of color. Some ideas also include: a review of hiring and contracting policies in the city and take steps to change institutional norms that could be perpetuating economic disparities. Identify and support new candidates from different racial and ethnic groups to serve on any community governing and advisory bodies. Create a clear vision, mission, and solidarity statement that prioritizes the need for humanizing antiracist policies, services, and programs which are important declarations of values and commitment. As a City Council member I will commit to the values expressed in such statements through my actions, particularly as they are expressed through budget priorities and the allocation of resources.
How would you effectively build a coalition to address issues of racial justice in Santa Cruz County?
As a multicultural woman of color, my life experience demands that I work persistently to achieve this goal. The coalition to effectively address issues of racial justice in Santa Cruz has already started to build. For the past several months I have been engaged in weekly meetings and calls, at first with Santa Cruz Mayor Cummings and Police Chief Mills along with a small group of various community members in Santa Cruz. This has grown and led to the creation of the Santa Cruz County Coalition For Justice and Racial Equity, a larger coalition of Black folks working to ensure that policies and institutional practices support racial equity and inclusion in Santa Cruz, and that progress is made in dismantling racist policies that specifically cause harm to Black lives in Santa Cruz.
I have set an intention to invest in and partner with our BIPOC communities, and develop and strengthen partnerships with some of our community-based organizations that do this work.How will you use your role on the city council to educate the community about racism in our city?
To educate the community about racism in our city would involve working with media outlets, and community engagement through community events, focus groups and meetings. The overall goal is to make sure that there is community participation in our city’s antiracism and anti discrimination initiatives at all stages. I think this will also help the city identify solutions and develop strategies or action plans that meet the communities’ needs, and will build better relationships between the city and its residents.
What have you learned recently about your role in racism?
I’ve learned that I may not be able to change racism in Santa Cruz overnight, but I can take steps to start, and commit to doing so within myself and my community. My role and value is engaging in my community, gaining a greater understanding of perspectives, connecting, and working together to have a voice that speaks out against racism.
What in your past record will give voters confidence that you will make substantial antiracist decisions on the Santa Cruz City Council?
My work and engagement in the community, and all of the relationships I have established over the past couple decades should give voters confidence that any decisions I make as a city council member will be through a lens of equity, and with a commitment to support antiracism and value diversity, which is essential for a healthy community.
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 think a strong City Council is about effective council members who are respectful and deferential toward all: to fellow councilmembers, staff, and the public regardless of likes, dislikes, friendships, politics, etc. This includes upholding a professional behavior that doesn't insult, attack, or demand, and working collaboratively to enact initiatives for public improvement and the best benefit of the community. I have the printed copy of the City Charter and need to read through it and learn more about the current oversight and understand how the process of any amendment changes works.
Please share your concrete suggestions about how you will address the high cost of living and lack of affordability for average working folks.
As someone who raised her son as a single mother and has been a renter in Santa Cruz the past 28 years, I truly understand the need to always advocate for affordable housing resources and rental assistance. I currently serve on the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, overall for 7 years. Some recent examples through the Housing Authority, we have applied for inflation adjusted rent subsidies, expanded the number of assistance vouchers for different programs, and were able to establish a landlord incentive program that encourages landlords to accept vouchers from the Section 8 housing program. The landlord portal on the Housing Authority website is a great resource available and is one part of the solution. We are also exploring the role of development, and are currently looking at a potential small development of a 100% high quality affordable housing complex on one of our properties in the city of Santa Cruz. We also applied for additional federal funding to apply towards existing subsidized housing programs, given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, I will work towards solutions that include: Simplifying the permitting process for homeowners to streamline building more accessory dwelling units Using the City of Santa Cruz 2015-2023 Housing Element as a template and jumping off point, a key priority is to support and expand on the already existing 1,600 units of regulated affordable housing for the very low, low, and moderate income households
Exploring private and public partnerships to fund more low income and affordable housing solutions
Incentivize developers to provide more affordable housing through the Project Based Voucher Program
Market-rate housing to include no less than 15%-20% inclusionary units
Ensuring that UCSC provides housing for as many of their students as possible on campus
Supporting a comprehensive housing approach that implements systems, priorities, and accessibilities for people of color in our community
Affordable housing in mixed use developments in commercial zones
Retaining existing affordable units and programs. There is no one answer to address Santa Cruz’s housing crisis.
As a City of Santa Cruz councilmember, my focus will be on thoughtful, balanced policies that support the development of equitable and affordable housing throughout our city, while also being mindful of environmental impact, strain on infrastructure, sustainability, and maintaining the coastal city charm of Santa Cruz.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 just read an article about a Universal Basic Income pilot program with 125 randomly selected individuals in Stockton, California, led by Mayor Tubbs, and funded by philanthropy. I would like to explore this topic more, and determine what a funding stream would look like in Santa Cruz for this kind of program, research and ask questions, and potentially work with the community to design any criteria for eligibility for this program. I also want to understand potential especially since COVID-19 has greatly impacted the city and is in struggle at the moment.
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?
Health and human services come under the purview of the county and I would gladly continue working with the County to support the programs that have been put in place to help feed and house those experiencing homelessness. I would encourage our city to continue advocating to the County for more services distributed throughout the County. I think it’s important to have consistent and regular communications, for example the 2x2 committee: consisting of the City Mayor and Vice Mayor together with 3rd and 5th district County Supervisors to work together with staff and make progress towards long term food and housing security. I would also engage with local non profit service providers and organizations doing good work that have program data to show the effectiveness of their programs. For example, I've engaged with and witnessed the changes in the downtown area due to programs like the Downtown Streets Team, Encompass outreach workers, and the Downtown Ambassador program who all work to help unhoused folks in our community get connected to resources and access to housing.
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?
For the upcoming winter months it seems that continued support of the City and County contract with the Salvation Army 24/7 managed shelter at the Armory will be essential. I am open to explore other recommendations and support any efforts including some kind of nightly shelter. It will be important to work with the County to explore expanded services, and to develop more emergency accommodations year round.
Are there aspects of the SC police contract that you think should be changed?
I have been engaged in the work to identify and examine the policies and culture that currently exist in the City police department, and learning what changes can be made on a local level vs. a State level. Overall, it’s clear that for too long the police have been incorrectly used as a catch all for all issues in our neighborhoods. I’ve worked for years in our Downtown neighborhood to collaboratively address various disruptive and harmful behavior issues downtown. So much of what I've learned is to identify behaviors, and who to correctly call for what, and most importantly to help share that information and educate the downtown community. For example, we already have two amazing downtown outreach workers to call for anyone that might need mental health or substance abuse outreach or homeless resources. We also have two County mental health liaisons that ride with SCPD officers to respond to those applicable calls not just downtown, but across the city. I would definitely like to explore the potential to expand on these valuable resources and programs.
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 think there is value in exploring a transfer of funding for social service issues, so that police can focus on responding to violent crimes and criminal acts. I know that this exploration has already begun and I’m already engaged in the discussion. I have been talking with Mayor Cummings about our amazing Downtown outreach workers, and he is working on bringing forward a study session to highlight current mental health response programs here in Santa Cruz. There will also be a presentation from the Eugene, Oregon CAHOOTS program on mobile crisis intervention teams. I support taking a percentage to reallocate towards solutions of not just homelessness, but also mental health and substance abuse crisis response. How much of a percentage, I’m not sure yet without fully understanding all the data of the whole picture. Should the City and other surrounding jurisdictions be interested in creating a program for Santa Cruz County, it would be necessary to understand how much that kind of program would cost and what funding could be allocated from the police budgets to support that kind of program. Here in the city, we already have some of the pieces in place, we just need to get to a place of having a coordinated team operating 24/7. I would even be open to exploring some pilot ideas, and additional funding through collaborations of private and community organizations like the Community Foundation. I would imagine even community members would gladly donate to have a 24/7 team have issues triaged to get an individual connected to services. I think it will also be essential to advocate for legislation and policies around the state level when it comes to funding and laws.
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?
Similar to the previous question, yes I support the creation of a CAHOOTS style triage system to address mental health and substance abuse crisis, as well as mobile wellness checks. I would love to explore building a city specific 24/7 on-call crisis response team if not county wide. This could include expanding on current County funded programs such as the outreach workers, case management workers, mental health liaisons, and HPHP (Homeless Person Health Project) who are health outreach workers that don’t currently respond on-call, but possibly could become on-call as a part of a crisis response team. A mobile crisis intervention team could be so valuable in building trust for outreach and addressing public health and safety issues, especially in climates of unmanaged encampments.
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?
It sounds like there are several concerns with this specific area that might require several different solutions. I know that through working in the downtown area, more services have been stepped up throughout the city, now more than ever, and we still don’t have enough. Many of the solutions require strong relationships with our County Supervisors, because they are health and human services issues that fall under their role, and require advocacy to improve State laws that protect individuals. I’m also curious to find out about if the city still pays for FIRST Alarm security at the Tannery? If so, how effective is it? It’s important to evaluate anything currently in place and assess effectiveness and funding.
Where do you stand on the new library/garage?
I support the new library mixed use development. It’s a proposal for a long overdue improved and expanded library that will serve as a needed community center, resource, and improved space for children, teens, adults, and seniors. It will also add affordable housing units into our community. We need this! This mixed use project is a way to team up resources and a way to use the current surface parking lot to serve the community in a better way than just for parking alone. I trust the library subcommittee’s consensus and analysis of the costs and benefits, knowing they met over the course of a year researching all the information and options, and ultimately believed this mixed use project to be a viable community benefit. To me, most importantly, the project includes a minimum of 50 affordable housing units, and I will advocate for the maximum amount of affordable housing and the minimum amount of parking for this location.
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.
Specifically, I love the idea of acknowledging Juneteenth as an official holiday. Overall, I want to make an effort to support events that celebrate the traditions of different cultural and ethnic groups. This can be as simple as including these events on the community calendar and actively publicizing them. Santa Cruz must also address any historical ties to slavery. As a City council member I would like to explore the creation of a reparations fund, the renaming of any buildings or places, and take other actions to confront and replace anything that honors past participation in slavery. I would love to hear from the community about some specific ideas.
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?
In my job, I have been regularly working with Economic Development city staff and partner organizations during COVID-19, to support small businesses with resources. One of the resources gave criteria for prioritizing women and people of color to receive the City issued small business loan. As a council member I will seek to support and implement tools that ensure equitable outcomes, and help all of us recover in a way that is inclusive and equitable. I would like to support safe spaces for open dialogues and community-wide discussions about strengthening institutional policies and practices that invest in racial equity and inclusion, and address the impact of national and state policies on BIPOC lives. I am also part of the Santa Cruz County Black Coalition For Justice and Racial Equity, and will work on increasing diverse representations in our civic life, and continue to work on addressing policing in Santa Cruz. It will be necessary to continue setting policies that invest in and uplift our BIPOC community. Our city can serve as an example for building transformative communities that are racially inclusive and aware.
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?
I would imagine this is referring to high school graduations, and I would need to learn more about the data. I do believe in the value of supporting career programs and counseling for students, particularly for Black students who may struggle to find jobs post graduation. It’s important to strengthen partnerships with employers to help secure employment opportunities for Black graduates and other residents of color who may face discrimination in the job market. Also working with the School Board to better understand any impacts and collaborate to create pathways forward, as well as listen to community members, experts, and the students to understand what specifically some of the challenges are in order to make informed decisions about what the priorities and solutions could be.