May 23

BALLOT RECOMMENDATIONS

The turnout in Santa Cruz County in the June 3, 2014 election did not reach 35%. The winning candidate for Third District Supervisor received a paltry 6,173 votes, not even enough for a seat on the Santa Cruz city council at the time. But, since it was 76% of the total votes cast, the only other candidate running received 1,781 votes. A winner was declared and there was no November runoff. This single election is likely the best argument I’ve seen while scanning this county’s voter turnout record since June of 1976 when 73.6% of the then 84,034 registered voters voted, for ranked choice voting (RCV).

Last Updated: June 20, 2014 5:49 PM

Even in 2018, the next gubernatorial year, there were more voters in Santa Cruz County and more of them came out to vote, as newbie governor candidate Gavin Newsom was in the race, but the turnout was less than 50%. 

In 2014, many factors may have contributed to the depressed turnout, but one big one was Jerry Brown’s popularity. He was a shoe-in for governor. Fast-forward to 2022, we also have a popular governor, Newsom, who just beat a recall, so presumably the stage may be set for a super-low turnout like 2014, Brown’s last winning campaign. But I would urge you to think again. Perhaps the great unknown in this June 2022 election is that every voter has been mailed a ballot, and the Greenway Measure is up for a vote. In those past governorship elections, you had to ask for mail-in ballot, or show up at the polls, the old-fashioned way. This year every registered voter has been mailed a ballot. This is the first-ever midterm election in which SC county voters received a mail-in ballot regardless of if they asked for it or not.

If You See Something, Say Something

I’ve been knocking on a good number of doors in the city of Santa Cruz these past couple of months. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in obtaining a sense of what voters are thinking about, or not thinking about. Since June is not November, it takes a while for voters to tune in, to realize there’s an election going on. What most voters I encountered stated, if they had heard about any issue, it was the countywide Measure D, the Greenway trail-only initiative. Most registered voters either brought it up, or when prompted, had an opinion. On the other end of the initiative spectrum, virtually no one was familiar with the city’s Measure E, the direct election of mayor and the partitioning of the city into six voting districts. Since Measure E is likely the most consequential electoral issue about to be decided by city voters, it was clear that not enough information and voter education had taken place. With respect to the trail-only measure, confusion about the actual ballot language was rife in voters I spoke with. In the past, if voters were unsure of what an issue meant, they either voted no, or did not vote on it at all. We’ll see if voters in this election follow that decision-path. My recommendations on all measures follow.

Recommendations for the June 7th Primary ballot

3rd District Supervisor–Ami Chen Mills

Ami Chen Mills
There are many reasons to support Chen Mills, and I offer six here:

• Commitment to Community. She is a person who has lived here for more than 30 years and has established deep roots in this community. Trained as a journalist, she knows how to do research, think critically, and advocate for the needs of this community’s most vulnerable. Ami Chen Mills is committed to communication and possesses a willingness to work with people she may not agree with, and I have found her to be warm and to never stop smiling!
• Climate. She has her eyes focused on global warming and the climate chaos now taking place on our planet. In the best sense of the “Think Global, Act Local,” tradition, Chen Mills will look at all county policies through the lens of climate.
• Homelessness and Houselessness. She has 25 years years of experience in the field of mental health field and was a member of the city’s CACH, Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness. She is well-poised to work on these issues.
• Affordable Housing. She’s a staunch advocate for affordable housing and understands the city is being steam-rolled by market-rate developers who use Yimby, the “Yes, in My Backyard” group, as cannon fodder in making their oodles of $cash$ on luxury housing (think “density bonuses” here) and as a result, our city gets very few affordable built. Either the county needs to institute a Department of Housing, or direct planning staff to spend 90% of their work hours on affordable housing provider applications from places like Eden, Mercy Housing, and Mid-Peninsula.
• Addressing CZU Fire Victim’s Needs. This has been a long-standing issue since the CZU Lightning Fire took place now almost two years ago. We need a supervisor who places this issue, along with fire prevention, near the top of the county’s agenda. Chen Mills has made frequent stops in Bonny Doon this past year and is quite familiar with these issues.
• No on Measure D. As a journalist, Ami Chen Mills went about studying this issue in depth from the first day she announced her candidacy. She knows the issue well and has concluded that we must not bury the tracks and we’ll fulfill our county’s commitment to providing a bike and pedestrian trail along with a functioning rail line.

Ami Chen Mills has also been a courageous advocate of two other initiatives now vying for the November 2022 ballot. She firmly supports both the Empty Homes Tax and is the only candidate who advocates for the Our Downtown, Our Future ballot initiative because it not only makes sense to fulfill the will of the voters in renovating the downtown library, but also it will produce many more units of affordable housing by designating other city lots as housing sites. Of course, the elephant in the room is the climate-killing parking garage. It’s why the city’s Economic Development Director now calls the boondoggle Taj Garage euphemistically, a “mixed use affordable housing project.” George Orwell lives and can be found planning for more climate-busting cement projects inside the walls of city hall!

YES on Measure B–increases hotel and Airbnb tax (all county voters)

There are so many reasons to vote for Measure B, so many unmet needs–homelessness, wild fire protection, paramedics–so many infrastructure issues we need to address. This will tax the people who flock to beautiful Santa Cruz and help foot the bill on some of the necessary upkeep of the place. No one ever did not visit a place because of the hotel tax. (Okay, maybe Jack Benny, but few others.) This measure raises the current hotel tax from 11 cents to 12 cents on the dollar, but more significantly tattoos a community imprint on vacation rental properties, 14%, and sends a message that if our community wishes to maintain environmental and sustainability values we must raise the money. Be on notice City of Santa Cruz, if this passes, you will have data from the community that they support a rise in hotel taxes. The average hotel tax in the United States in 2019 was 13.5% according to a study released in 2020 by the American Hotel & Lodging Association. In the city of Santa Cruz, the hotel tax stands at 11%.

Excerpt from study:

• Many major tourism destinations, such as Las Vegas at 13.4%; Myrtle Beach and Miami at 13%; Minneapolis at 12.9%; and San Diego at 12.5% are around the national average of 13.3% total hotel tax. Several cities, including Kansas City, MO at 20.4%*; Anaheim, CA at 18.1%*; and San Antonio, TX at 17.6%, require hotel guests to pay far above the national average. 

YES on Measure C–paper cup tax (all county voters)

This allows the county to share in the “existing 0.25 cents charge” with business owners. I was convinced after consulting with a local cafe owner. She said she supports sharing the fee with the county as it will go to addressing several current problems including parks, local beaches, and environmental education.

NO on Measure D–gets rid of a possible future rail line (city voters)

So much information exists about Measure D that you maybe if you do not know you were living out of town this past year or you just don’t look at anything remotely politically charged. And this just in: former California governor Jerry Brown, yes that Jerry Brown, advocates for a NO vote on the “Greenway Initiative Petition.” It just seems to me it is premature to bury the tracks before we have completely exhausted rail, or another type of transportation which might occupy this space along with the bike and pedestrian trail. And by the way, while Greenway spent an ungodly amount of money, and No on Greenway also spent a wad of cash, this initiative cries out for overturning Citizen’s United, instituting publicly financed elections (incentive instead of punish), and putting campaign finance reform on the ballot.

NO on Measure E–complete change in city elections process (city voters)

This initiative calls for the most dramatic changes in our electoral system since perhaps the 1940’s when the current city charter was first drafted. If it passes, this measure will create a directly elected mayor and six districts. All voters will currently turn in their SEVEN city councilmember votes for TWO, the mayor and your district representative. When I walk neighborhoods, this measure was consistently unknown to voters. Enough public education has not been done. Also, why is Ranked Choice Voting, direct election of a “strong” mayor, and campaign finance reform not being considered on the ballot too? Because this measure is a power grab being perpetrated by the current pro-real estate, pro-developer 5-2 city council majority. Don’t believe me, just look at where their campaign money came from when they ran for office, it’s publicly revealed on the city clerk’s web page. Also, see where the money is coming from that finances the candidates for 3rd district supervisor and $$$ behind Greenway here. Good luck friends, choose wisely.

NO on Measure F, sales tax increase (city voters)

Earth to city council: sales taxes are regressive, period. Take a note from the county’s playbook, hotel taxes are popular with voters, insures those who pay them help pay for critical city infrastructure, and the city’s hotel tax is considerably less than the tax in college town Madison, Wi (16%) and amusement park-crazy Anaheim (18%). Stop allowing the hotel industry, real estate industry, and market rate housing industry to run local government. The hotel buck, unfortunately, stops in the Marriot, Hilton, and soon to be (without community protest) Cruz Hotel bank accounts, not the city council’s. NO on this regressive measure.

“It is imperative that we do everything we can today and tomorrow to ensure Jessica Cisneros running for Congress in Texas @JCisnerosTX wins her runoff election tomorrow. I was proud to travel to San Antonio to stand with her on Friday”.

On the campaign trail for Ami Chen Mills, with Lynda Marin who is a masterful campaigner.

 May 16

A MEETING MOST FOUL.

On Monday, May 2nd, the group, Santa Cruz Together (SCT) met at 6pm for fundraiser at Eric Stockwell’s wine bar, Stockwell Cellars, on Swift Street on the Westside of Santa Cruz. Four city councilmembers were present at this meeting in which city business was decidedly discussed, a breach of the state’s Brown Act. In addition, it was explained to the group, in earshot of 3rd District Supervisor candidate Shebreh Kalantari Johnson, that “unlimited amounts” of cash could be donated to the SCT political action committee to support “Measure E and Shebreh.” SCT was the group that spearheaded defeating rent control by raising over a million dollars. The group is part reactionary, part Republican, part moderate-Democrat, but always 100% pro-real estate, pro-market rate housing development and anti-houseless. The meeting’s transcript is available here and is full of some political peccadillos, half-truths, and campaign violations that it might be worth a listen. I am placing below some of the more juicy, painful, and ideological remonstrance of this well-heeled swingin’ soiree in today’s column. (note: I’ve edited it for clarity.) Surely, we can come together and provide a few collective dollops of pity for the petty Santa Cruz bourgeoisie. I am not sure that the ghosts of Lee Atwater or Big Daddy Jesse Unruh (“Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”) weren’t lurking somewhere behind the wine barrels inside this old industrial property on Swift Street.

Rogue’s Gallery, Santa Cruz Style

It is a 43-minute and 30-second recording, which local activist, Ann Simonton, recorded live. I have selected parts of the longer transcript and placed them below with the minutes and seconds count where it can be found in the recording. This gathering was a political who’s who in conservative-moderate developer-friendly Surf City circles. Only missing, some of the speakers said out loud, were Hillary Bryant, Kris Reyes (Boardwalk PR guy), and current mayor Sonia Bruner. It is also interesting that Justin Cummings and Drew Glover’s names were spat out, epithet-like, but no one else from the political progressive community was mentioned. “DSA,” Democratic Socialists of America, Santa Cruz, was also used at one point the same way anti-communist rhetoric was used in the 1950’s, to condemn without much discussion.

SPEAKERS

Donna Meyers, Lynn Renshaw, Peter Cook, Shebreh Kalantari Johnson

Lynn Renshaw  00:00

Thank you all for coming. I’m so happy to see so many friendly faces here physically and in person. It means a lot to us. What I’m going to do today is start off by talking about Santa Cruz Together’s direction. And then we have ex-mayor and Councilmember Donna Meyers, who’s going to talk about Measure E, the elected mayor measure. And then we have Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson council member. Councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson’s running for supervisor. And then Peter Cook and I are going to wrap up…So together, a lot of us have been together on a journey for over four years. SCT (Santa Cruz Together) started with the shock of the Measure M (rent control on the 2018 ballot) emergence. And we successfully built this network and the broader network to defeat it by a very wide margin…After that, many of us witnessed a great deal of chaos and instability in the city generated by the progressive majority, beginning with Shebreh’s opponent (Justin) Cummings, attempting to pass Measure M after we defeated it by a two to one margin. Due to our organized opposition…Cummings backed off passing Measure M…Cummings is Shebreh’s opponent for county supervisor. Take note…We have strong and steadfast leadership with councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and the (city council) majority that we have in place now…So we’ve built a network of thousands of people that are engaged with a city…And we help them run campaigns. And then we’re also working on campaigns for particular local measures… So, in that light, we’re here to advocate for, yes, on Measure E, the directly elected mayor…We think it’s vitally important to the future of the city. We think it’s critical for improving the leadership of the city. And it doesn’t have a yes campaign. So, we’re stepping in…need some help, and we’re here to provide that help tonight. Okay, and then likewise, in November, we’re likely to run the “No campaign” on the Empty house (Homes) Tax. This is another one of these misguided citizen initiatives put together by the Democratic Socialists (DSA). And it’s overreaching and just as flawed in its own way, as Measure M…the proposal is that it will tax second homes and use the money to tax second homes $6,000 and use the money to fund affordable housing, apartment buildings. But as is the case with most of these things, the devil is in the details. If the law passes, there will be a registry of every homeowner in the city…It’s really a Trojan horse to put in place, a homeowner registered registry and a rental registry. The rental registry was a DSA objective, beginning in 2019. And just like misguided measure M the authors are extreme people, that overreach by drafting a law that includes things like homeowner audits up to once a year requiring three years of documentation, criminal penalties of misdemeanors, for those that are forgetting to report to the city, how much they were home, fines of $1,000 a day, and more. So, the signatures for that citizen initiative were turned in to be certified by the elections. And we will find out if it qualifies in a couple of weeks, we fully expect it to qualify. So that’s another example of a campaign that won’t necessarily have opponents, except us. And we will be prepared to take that on. And we think that with your help, we fully expect (because) it’s so unreasonable. Any well organized campaign can point out just how flawed and ridiculous that proposal is…But tonight, we’re here to focus on the June election…So, let’s all welcome councilmember Donna Meyers, to talk about Measure E, the directly elected mayor…

Donna Meyers 09:08

Thank you, Santa Cruz Together for the invitation tonight to inform you all of Measure E. Okay, I always get these mixed up sorry, “Shall the Santa Cruz city charter be amended to provide for a directly elected at large mayor, six council districts updated rules on term limits and runoff elections.” And you’ll be able to vote yes or no on that. It’s a lot, a mouthful of things that a lot of people, a lot of people sort of maybe don’t completely get. In November of 2022, you will be voting as a member of an actual city district…What this measure would do with relation to that seven-district map is that it would provide for a runoff election for those districts…there would be a June primary similar to the Board of Supervisors…then there would be a November election. So, if you had 10 People running in a district, then the top two if that one didn’t get 50% plus one would move to that November, a runoff election…it does change things up a little bit from what most people are used to usually you would vote for, you know, three candidates or four candidates in the…at large election, it’s going to be different. Now the districts are set, we’re not able to go backwards. We will be voting in districts…the mayor would be elected across all 63,000 residents of the city of Santa Cruz, it would serve as the seventh seat on the city council. We would still have seven seats, but we would have six district seats and one at-large elected mayor… they’re not going to hire the police chief. They’re also not in charge of the budget. The city manager remains in that role…As someone who served in the role of mayor, and I want to recognize Martine Watkins, I know she’s here, she’s been our mayor, I see Lynn Robinson and Cynthia Matthews…and then council members, Renee Golder and Shebreh…it’s definitely worth exploring and taking some time to take a vote on that this time around…now I’m going to introduce Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson, my colleague on the city council, and I think a woman that is going to be an amazing supervisor for us in district three…

Shebreh Kalantari Johnson  20:17

Good evening. Thank you all for being here on this beautiful Monday…My name is Shebreh Johnson, and Lynn (Renshaw) earlier talked about journeys in Santa Cruz Together…So I’m not going to give you my whole resume and my CV… I will highlight some of the things that I’ve done in this community to actualize those values of a healthy, strong community…grant writer… policies around cannabis and alcohol…and brought in nonprofits, public sector, county departments, cities to work on important issues…And I’ve been fortunate to have amazing colleagues on the city council, vice mayor Watkins, council member Golder, I don’t know if you’ve met councilmember Golder, former mayor and council member Meyers. Mayor Brunner, who’s not here…Those are the current council members. And then the wisdom and guidance of other former mayors and council members, Cynthia Matthews, Lynn Robinson… Now, Lynn (Renshaw) brought up a couple of policy issues that are important to you. So, I just want to name clearly for you all, I opposed Measure M (rent control, 2018), and I am opposed to the Empty Homes Tax, because I think it’s poor policy…I didn’t support Measure M, and I’m not supporting the Empty Homes tax…I’m honored to have received the endorsement of supervisor Ryan Coonerty, and also to have received the endorsement of Santa Cruz Together and so many other leaders in this community…

Lynn Renshaw  28:26

Peter Cook has also been with us since we’ve started Santa Cruz Together over four years ago.

Peter Cook  28:36

Thank you, Lynn. Thank you, Donna and Shebreh. Quick…I am Peter, the party planner. And I wanted to start off by thanking our hosts Eric and Suzanne Stockwell…How many of you were here for the kickoff for the Measure M campaign? Oh, man, you have not lived if you sit out here… (Drew) Glover and a bunch of crazy people yelling…with a bullhorn. Like, that was an absolutely crazy night (in 2018) and look how far we’ve come…Thank you for coming. I want to just quickly go over what is Santa Cruz Together. As you know, we’re the (not clear?) organization that defeated measure M. 

I’d like to introduce our board…I’m Peter Cook. Our fearless leader is Lynn Renshaw. Our highly, highly experienced political strategist is Kris Reyes, who couldn’t be here tonight…We have our rocket scientists and tech support and Dan Coughlin. And then we have our legal department and Treasurer, and that’d be Brad Brereton… I know everyone wants us to take on all things political in Santa Cruz. But that’s not what we’re doing. We’re focusing on the big-ticket items, and focus on winning those…Measure E and Shebreh…We’re also looking for good (city) council candidates for November to support…

I’m going to miss some people that I wanted to thank and I’m going to skip the people who’ve already been recognized. But I do want to thank David Terrazas…Hillary Bryant wanted to pass on Hello, everybody. Unfortunately, she could not be here…Carol Fuller from the Democratic Women’s Club…Deborah Elston’s here from Santa Cruz Neighbors…A dear friend of mine, Carol Polhamus…

Lynn Renshaw  36:09

That was nice. Thank you, Peter…So we’ve heard from Shebreh. And we’ve heard about “Yes, on measure E.” We need your help. So SCT is working on two mailers that will promote Shebreh’s campaign. And also, Yes on measure E, which we think is important for stronger leadership, better leadership. If you think about measure E, like if you were just the mayor, somebody who only does the job for one year, imagine any other job, or you start it, you’ve never done it before, it’s that significant. And then you get a new one and start all over again. So, we think that’s important for advancing a better quality of leadership in the city…to do this, we’re planning to do Santa Cruz together mailers. The mailers cost $15,000 each. We’re using the same professional firm that we’ve used to produce our mailers and our digital campaigns for all of our successful campaigns. It’s still the case that the best way to reach voters is through mailers. And to some extent, what they say is the candidate or the measures with the most mailers wins, so we’re doing pretty well on that. But tonight, we’re aiming to raise that $10,000, we need to have the funding for the two mailers. And because of our generous donors, tonight, we have a matching grant so we can match donations up to $10,000. Tonight, I myself, I’m going to contribute $500 to chip away at that and to get part of that match. One of the advantages that we have set Santa Cruz Together is a political action network. ( Political Action Committee) And so we don’t have a contribution limit. That said, some quick logistics…we hope that you’ll support us, and checks can be made out to Santa Cruz Together. You can give them to me, you can give them to Brad (Brereton) over here. And if you don’t have a checkbook and you want to make a donation, you can make a donation at Santa Cruz together.com…also, take a Shebreh yard sign and then we’re also going to have yard signs for “Yes On Measure E.” We don’t quite have them yet. We’ll put them up in the next couple of days…I feel like I know 90 percent of the people here…I like that our sense of collective purpose and improving the city, so vote for Shebreh and yes and measure E. I’ll hang around and take questions, Shebreh will take questions. Thanks again everybody for being here”.

“The leaders of the Democratic Party talk a lot about Republican “dark money.” I’m not hearing much, however, about the dark money from billionaires trying to crush the candidacies of three progressive women of color. We must BAN all super PAC money in Democratic primaries.” (May 16)

Another brilliant rendering of speaking truth to power from local artist Russell Brutsche to our Community, he gets the con our community is being sold. (So does Stephen Kessler in his recent piece