Merced City Council District 3 candidates answer questions at forum as election nears. What they said
Incumbent Bertha Perez is not seeking another term as the District 3 representative on Merced City Council in November’s election but there are three other candidates for the wide-open seat.
They are: Mike Harris, a retired sheriff’s sergeant and planning commissioner, Cynthia Kelly, the Merced SPCA president and former City of Merced employee, and Sair Lara Rodriguez, who has worked in education for 16 years.
District 3 covers Northwest Merced.
Harris, Kelly and Rodriguez participated in a candidate forum at the Merced Boys & Girls Club on Saturday, where they answered questions and expressed their views on a number of issues and challenges facing Merced, including public safety, economic development, infrastructure and homelessness.
Here are some of the questions posed to the two candidates during the forum and a summary of their responses.
Their responses appear in the order they were given during the forum.
Question: If elected, what housing policies and programs will you advance to ensure that residents have access to quality and affordable housing, including for low income?
Rodriguez said the focus should be on more building in Merced. The city is behind on construction of homes, he said, and more homes will lower the price for buyers, including low-income residents.
“That is the main problem right now,” Rodriguez said. “Our housing stock is so low, we’re behind. We need to build. That helps affordability across the board.”
Kelly agreed with Rodriguez that there needs to be a focus on building in Merced and also believes the City of Merced should make requirements for developers that a percentage of subdivisions being built should offer owner-occupied housing, where the home is owned and lived in by the same person.
“I would like us to bring back some of those conditions in the subdivision agreements that will ensure that our Mercedians are occupying those homes and that they’re not being taken up by investors for rentals or investment properties,” Kelly said.
Harris believes the construction of more UC Merced housing will free up more rentals in town for residents. Working on the planning commission has shown Harris that the decision to build low-incoming housing doesn’t always fall on the city, he said.
“Housing is very strictly regulated by the state,” Harris said. “They can put up a proposal to do a housing and have absolutely no low-income housing, and we cannot turn it down. We can certainly make suggestions and encourage them, but the state tightly regulates what we can and can’t do in the city.”
Q: If elected, what are some solutions you propose to ensure existing disadvantaged communities such as those in South Merced get the infrastructure improvements and investments they need, including road improvements, sidewalks, lights, water, storm water, drainage and sewer?
Harris said that as a council member he would look for ways to improve the city and his focus wouldn’t be entirely on his district.
“You can’t be narrow-minded and just look out for what’s in your district,” Harris said. “I think we can prioritize projects. We have a committee that can look at all the needs and set priorities, and if District 2 needs sidewalks, lighting, anything more than any other place, I will support that 100 percent.”
Kelly said infrastructure improvements in South Merced should be a priority and the city’s focus should not just be north of Olive Avenue.
“I would like to see the city use their own pavement management system plan from 2018 and match it up with their current city infrastructure public improvement plans,” Kelly said. “Because right now, the two do not match. All of the new infrastructure is planned for north of Olive and not south.”
Rodriguez agreed that South Merced needs extra attention. He said the city needs to a development department, including hiring a full-time engineer.
“We were at a meeting on Wednesday, and the ongoing theme was that they were understaffed,” Rodriguez said. “All the departments were understaffed. So how are we going to grow and fix our infrastructure anywhere in the city if we don’t have the the development departments not staffed?”
Q: How will you ensure all residents, including children, youth and seniors, have access to safe, vibrant parks and accessible community spaces and recreational programs?
Kelly said she wants to find a way to bring more activities to Merced for youths such as a bowling alley or a Blackbeard’s Entertainment Center.
“They need their own spaces where they can go and feel safe and be part of this community and have the support of their council to do that,” she said.
Rodriguez said he would like to build a bridge between the Merced City School District and the City of Merced to to create opportunities for kids using funding from MCSD.
“I have over 16 years experience in expanded learning youth programs, and if I am elected, the city’s getting an education consultant for free,” Rodriguez said.
Harris said the city has to give people a reason to stay in Merced for activities. He agreed there should be a bowling alley or miniature golf in Merced.
“One of the things I would do, if elected, is I would get the city to hire a full-time grant writer,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of money out there. As (Rodriguez) mentioned, there’s shortages in all of the city staff, and they can’t get the money. We can get a grant writer to get that money, and it will pay for their own position.”
Q: Merced residents face issues with speeding and pedestrian safety. How will you address these concerns?
Harris said his experience in law enforcement will help him tackle the issue of pedestrian safety and speeding. He added that you have to educate the public, add things like stop signs and red light cameras, and enforce the traffic infractions.
“You have to be able to have consequences for speeding, jaywalking, things like that, things that put you at risk,” Harris said. “And I would advocate for enough law enforcement and technology to take care of those engineering and enforcement issues.”
Kelly said that, after talking to residents, there are two areas of concern in the city: R Street and 21st Street and Glenn Avenue.
“There have been multiple fatalities at both of those locations, and there is also constant speeding and accidents at those locations,” Kelly said. “So I’m going to mirror what Mike said. It’s all about traffic calming. It’s all about enforcement. So getting the red light cameras out there, putting up additional stop signs at locations to encourage people to slow down.”
Rodriguez said that after hearing from people in the community, traffic issues have overtaken homelessness as the top priority in the city.
He said the council needs to work with and educate people how to work with city departments to address those issues.
“It’s not that simple as, like, we need a stop sign here,” Rodriguez said. “You need to go through traffic commission. We need a speed bump here, we’ve got to go through traffic commission. So we got to educate our community how to work with our city departments to get those things done.”
Q: So what are your long term and short term goals to address the needs of the unhoused population in Merced?
Kelly said homelessness needs to be treated as a symptom of a mental illness and addiction. The city needs to work to keep people from returning to the streets.
“To do that, we have to offer them the mental health and addiction programs and support and services that they need,” Kelly said. “We have to focus on what the true issues are and not the symptom. Long term, I’d like to see them in long term housing and with job development skills, perhaps returning education skills as well.”
Rodriguez said that in order to address the issue, the city needs to work with Merced County officials.
“We do need to address mental health and drug addiction, but we also need to work with our county supervisors and our county departments, because they’re the ones that get the bulk of the money to address the homelessness,” Rodriguez said.
Harris echoed Kelly and Rodriguez, pointing out it’s a mental health issue and the city needs to work with Merced County.
“There is zero dollars in the city for mental health because it’s a county function,” Harris said. “We need to partner more with the county and make those services available.”
Q: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the city of Merced is about 10%. How will you create economic opportunities that provide sustainable wages for all residents and allow them to achieve upward mobility?
Kelly said the city can make it easier for small businesses to open. Kelly said it’s also crucial to retrain the workforce.
“We have a huge (agriculture) and tech presence here in Merced, so we need to be focusing our workforce training on those industries, where jobs are currently available, and good paying jobs that are currently available in those industries,” Kelly said.
Rodriguez said Merced needs to change its image of not being business friendly.
“We need all types of businesses, small and large,” Rodriguez said. That is how we support our growing community, and construction is one of our big ones. So if we do more development, then that’s going to increase a lot of qualified construction jobs that can lead to skilled jobs in the future.”
Harris said he wouldn’t turn away any business interested in coming to Merced, small or large.
“If I were the economic development director, there’d be cobwebs by my desk because I would be out selling Merced as much as possible,” Harris said. “We have a product; it’s amazing. People are not breaking down our doors to come offer us businesses. We have to go to them. We have to sell them Merced. I’m prepared to do that.”
Mail-in ballots will be sent to voters on Oct. 7. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 21 with election day falling on Nov. 5.
This story was originally published September 19, 2024 at 12:07 PM.
