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Capitola City Council

Four candidates are vying for two seats on the Capitola City Council in the Nov. 5 election.

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Enrique Dolmo Jr.

Age: 49.
Residence: Near Gayle’s Bakery.
Occupation: Athletic director, campus security and transportation officer at New Brighton Middle School.

Gerry Jensen

Gerry Jensen

Age: 56.
Residence: Near Gayle’s Bakery.
Occupation: Capitola Planning Commissioner, small-business owner, general contractor.

Margaux Morgan

Margaux Morgan (incumbent)

Age: 37.
Residence: Near Gayle’s Bakery.
Occupation: Capitola City Council member, personal trainer and restaurant manager.

Melinda Orbach

Melinda Orbach

Age: 40.
Residence: 38th Avenue.
Occupation: Family nurse practitioner with Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Quick comparison (full answers below)

Do you support passenger rail in Capitola?

Dolmo Jr.: “I’m not 100% on the trail and the rail.” Until a decision is made on the Capitola Trestle, it should be blocked off for safety.
Jensen: “I would support that.” He added, “We need to look at what that cost impact is to the community,” including operations.
Morgan: It’s multifaceted and she wants to see rail options. “If we could get something off the ground that would be beneficial for all, I’m into it.”
Orbach: Supports rail on Segment 10 (from Live Oak to Jade Street Park) and South County Segments 15 to 20. Did not address the trestle.

How can bike safety improve?

Dolmo Jr.: Add bike lanes or bike safety features near New Brighton Middle School and Park Avenue.
Jensen: Consider safety upgrades on Clares Street and Monterey, Capitola and 41st avenues.
Morgan: Narrow some  streets, advocate for more conscientious drivers and cyclists.
Orbach: Build Segment 10 of the rail trail, add or improve bike lanes on Wharf Road, Clares Street and 30th Avenue. 

Do you support an empty-home tax in Capitola?

Dolmo Jr.: No, but “I’d have to talk to the community and see what the community would really feel about that.”
Jensen: “I wouldn’t support it now without additional information.”
Morgan: “I think with our housing issues, it would be something worth looking into.”
Orbach: “We’ll have to see what the implications are, what it means for the city if we do something like this, and whether we can enforce this.”

Do you support the Capitola sales tax hike, Measure Y?

Dolmo Jr.: Yes.
Jensen: Yes.
Morgan: Yes.
Orbach: Yes.

Enrique Dolmo Jr. Gerry Jensen Margaux Morgan Melinda Orbach
Do you support passenger rail in Capitola? “I’m not 100% on the trail and the rail.” Until a decision is made on the Capitola Trestle, it should be blocked off for safety. “I would support that.” Added, “We need to look at what that cost impact is to the community,” including operations. Wants to see rail options. “If we could get something off the ground, that would be beneficial for all, I’m into it.” Supports rail on Segment 10 (from Live Oak to Jade Street Park). Then build South County Segments 15 to 20.
Do you support an empty-home tax in Capitola? No, but “I’d have to talk to the community and see what the community would really feel about that.” “I wouldn’t support it now without additional information.” “I think with our housing issues, it would be something worth looking into.” “We’ll have to see what the implications are, what it means for the city if we do something like this, and whether we can enforce this.”
How can bike safety improve? Add bike lanes or bike safety features near New Brighton Middle School and Park Avenue. Consider safety upgrades on Clares Street and Monterey, Capitola and 41st avenues. Narrow some streets, advocate for more conscientious drivers and cyclists. Build Segment 10 of the rail trail, add or improve bike lanes on Wharf Road, Clares Street and 30th Avenue.
Do you support the Capitola sales tax hike, Measure Y? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Capitola City Council candidates on the issues

Santa Cruz Local interviewed and surveyed residents in Capitola this summer about their priorities for city council candidates. The following questions are based on what we heard from voters.

What experience do you have that prepares you for office? What local issues drive you to run?

Experience: Dolmo Jr. said his experience with the youth makes him a good candidate for city council, and that this experience has given him insight on youth needs. Such needs include more sports facilities, a youth center and more extracurricular activities.

Important local issues: Dolmo Jr. initially ran for city council four years ago after a tragic accident killed one of the students at New Brighton Middle School. He said he wanted to increase activities for youth outside of school time. Now, he is also much more interested in enhancing public safety and increasing housing, especially affordable housing for public servants.

Experience: Served on Capitola City Council since 2020. Morgan said that working in the restaurant industry “puts you in a position of dealing with people of all walks of life, and how to manage that isn’t always easy for everybody.”

Important local issues: Morgan first ran for city council when the COVID-19 pandemic limited both of her sources of income. Her interest in helping with the recovery led her to local politics.

Experience: Jensen recently helped a group push for Capitola Wharf improvements. Jensen managed projects for 20 years as a general contractor and was a reserve deputy sheriff’s deputy in Santa Clara County. He worked for Campbell Union School District and Moreland School District in operations, construction and transportation. He was also a union president and chief negotiator.

Important local issues: Housing overshadows everything else in terms of changes that Capitola faces. Jensen said more leadership is needed to build housing at Capitola Mall but it would not solve all of  Capitola’s housing problems.

Experience: Orbach said her experience as a health care provider has helped her “understand the importance of caring for patients holistically,” including their culture, family history, housing status and financial situation. She said she views public policy similarly and would approach policy holistically through a health equity lens to consider all positions and impacts before transforming the community. Additionally, Orbach serves as union steward for Engineers and Scientists Local 20.

Important local issues: Orbach said that as a working parent, she was challenged by the lack of child care availability in the city and would like to see summer camps expanded. Additionally, she believes that there should be more representation for westside Capitola residents on the city council.

Would you vote to support passenger rail transit through Capitola?

I’m not 100% on the trail and the rail, but what I do know is that if they pull up the tracks, the state or the city loses millions of dollars. OK, I get that. So right now, we’re in a push. We’re in a stalemate. Nobody wants to do anything, and by the time they were to put a rail on there, I’m going to be long gone, dead. But what I do know is, when students go up there, there’s a danger. They can fall off that rail. I do believe that it needs to be blocked off some way now.

Talking to the community down in the village, they want bike lanes all the way down in the village. So putting [bike lanes] on the railway would be an option for me.  But until we decide what we want to do with that rail and that trestle, it does need to be blocked off so our youth in the community, going back to public safety, so someone doesn’t get hurt. 

It’s multifaceted, right? There could be all these different options that come to light, and sort of in the whole idea about timing, that’s going to be a huge part of how we could move forward.

We have the infrastructure there to do something in regards to transportation, and we know that we need it, and we do have options of all types of transportation.

We work in conjunction with the [Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission] who owns that corridor, and we have to sort of go with them and trust with them that they’re going to help us make decisions moving forward — [and] help get us to a point where we can utilize the space that’s already there.

I think it would make more people happy if we can have a more dynamic use for that. But yeah, hopefully within the near future. I don’t know how possible it is, but if we could get something off the ground, that would be beneficial for all, I’m into it.

As we look at impacts of what our congestion is here today, we look at where our congestion is going to be in the future, with the additional housing that we’re going to be developing and stuff, obviously there needs to be some improvement. So overall — rail, sure, yeah, I would support that. I think there’s some things that would have to be looked at.

My understanding is that they’re doing a revised cost estimate that will be out in Q1 of 2025. We need to look at what that cost impact is to the community. And that just not to build, like if we’re using this example in the question about passenger rail, that’s not just to build,  and how much that’s going to come in, if that’s you know, twice what the last estimate was or not. But the next thing I want to understand is who and how we’re going to balance the operating costs. And are those operating costs going to be balanced on the backs of our citizens of Capitola? Same thing, if the rail is going to be put in and it’s going to be balanced on the backs of the citizens of Capitola. And if we don’t have a funding mechanism for that, you know, there might be some questions so that it doesn’t create a budget deficit.

There are potentially some properties that might have to be displaced, some mobile homes and stuff. And that would concern me if we’re starting to displace housing. 

I support building rail trail Segment 10 in the ultimate configuration as soon as possible, which will complete the active transportation link between Capitola and Santa Cruz. This will also allow us to reduce our dependence on cars to get across town. It’ll reduce traffic and allow housing units to be constructed with less on-site parking.

Once Segment 10 is completed, I think the focus of the [Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission] should be on allowing and giving services to South County, finishing or working on segments 15 to 20, so that the residents there can connect to the slough system and the ocean. Up until now, all the funding for the RTC project, for the rail-trail project has benefited the affluent North County, and it’s time that South County residents also get some of the benefits.

If you had to cut $1 million from the City of Capitola’s roughly $20 million General Fund budget, what would you cut and what would you prioritize to keep?

I’ve asked a lot of the community members that same question. And obviously, when you cut $1 million, you’re cutting jobs. So I would have to look more into the budget to give you a straight answer on that. I don’t have an answer where I want to cut, because I would never want to cut somebody’s job. But if a million dollars were to come up, I would definitely want that to go to our police station, because if we don’t pay our police officers, they’re going to get up and they’re going to leave. 

I do have some ideas on how we can maybe raise more money in the community so we can get that but you never really want to cut because that’s taking someone’s job away. I believe that once the Wharf is open, we will get that community and more visitors and more tourists coming back towards our city, and maybe create more revenue so we can get that million dollars.

That’s a hard question, and timing would have everything to do with that depending on what was going on in the city at that time. Are we recovering from COVID, the storms and the things that our poor community has really kind of gone through over the last few years? That would play a big role in decision making.

Discretionary spending would obviously be looked at first, and then tackled in a more immediate sense. We operate on a pretty tight budget as it is. So I definitely wouldn’t want to take anything away from our staffing, from our public safety, with our PD, our environment, the cleanliness of the beauty that is Capitola.

Over the last four years, I have gained a new understanding and new knowledge of how important these behind-the-scenes operations really are, and that the city just doesn’t run itself. So it’s super important to make sure that those people are supported.

I’ve been through this a lot when I worked in the school district [in Santa Clara County], and our goal was always to cut furthest away from our end user. And at that time, our end user was students. And so I would use that same philosophy being a city councilor. Our end user is our community and our citizens. And so with that, I mean, there’s essential things that have to stay in place. 

First thing is public safety. Public safety has to stay in place as an item that has to be funded. And the next thing I would look at is infrastructure as maybe a sacred thing that would not be touched. And then, you know, we get down into the next thing would be road safety for youth and the seniors. And then city operations also, those are things I think are mandatory that we have to operate. And then I think we would look outside of that.

We have a [Finance Advisory Committee] that’s made up of some business owners and some community. I would expand that immediately and get more community involvement from more business owners, from, let’s say the 41st [Avenue] corridor, let’s say the village. Also some community leaders that we have here in our community that aren’t in those two sectors, and bring them together to really analyze where these cuts would come from.

I think it would be incredibly difficult to cut $1 million from the current General Fund budget. While we may be able to find some small cost savings by poring over the contract services budget and overtime pay to reduce costs. For example, we pay our police force overtime when we do private events. That should really be paid for by event organizers when we have events at the village.

I don’t think we should ask the city to do more with less, and I really want to shift the mindset and discussion. Instead of clinging to this scarcity mindset when we talk about the city’s budget, I would encourage the city to take a more proactive, growth-centered mindset and explore other sustainable ways to increase revenue. This could be through low-hanging fruit, such as streamlining our development review process so we can approve more development projects and bring in more entitlement and building permit application fees, or changing our zoning code to remove or reduce barriers to economic development, such as prohibitive parking requirements for businesses in close proximity to residential areas and public and active transportation routes.

I think we’re in a really privileged position, being a community where people already want to be. We need to prioritize attracting new businesses and supporting existing businesses so their success can be our success.

Several Capitola residents said they want safer bike routes. What are your plans to increase bike safety in Capitola? Which bike projects would you prioritize in your first two years? Please be specific about locations.

I definitely think that we need more bike lanes. They made a bike lane over by Nob Hill [supermarket]. Does anybody like it? No, because they took off a lane for traffic. But it’s a safety issue, and I know why, because someone was actually killed by a vehicle there recently. So I understand what you have to do. You have to make it safe. They put more lighting up. They put more stop signs that blink. I think they’re doing a great job there. 

I think if I was in office and I got elected, I would definitely want to put more bike lanes by the middle school where I work. Because there’s a lot of students that are getting on their bike and they’re jamming down the street, and cars are trying to get out. There it’s bottlenecked.

We also would need some safer places on Park Avenue as well too. That probably would be my second and then starting from there, we’d have to move down. They got some down there on Bay [Avenue]. But I definitely would want to start on Monterey [Avenue] Park in front of New Brighton Middle School to make sure children get home safe.

Bike safety really does come down to the biker and the motorist, you know, and obviously other things impact that, but it’s hard to control humans and what they do while they’re out on the road.

Narrowing streets is something that has shown to help keep bikers on the side, cars more down the middle, not using so much of the lane. But there’s a lot of places that’s going to be really hard to do, such as Monterey Avenue going down or out of Capitola village. 

We need to be conscious drivers. We need to be conscious pedestrians. All kinds of things that sort of go into the mix of traffic safety. And, you know, people always say, share the road. Well, we really do have to do that.

Bike safety is a major concern I list as one of my campaign issues that I would like to have addressed.

Jensen also mentioned:

  • Ensuring Monterey Avenue and the routes youth travel to and from New Brighton Middle School are safe for bikes.
  • Simultaneously doing accessibility improvements like curb cut outs for wheelchairs when bike safety improvements are done.
  • Potential bollards and paint striping for bike lanes.
  • Better signage.
  • Outreach programs to teach youth about bike safety.

“Finishing Segment 10 is one of my highest priorities, because that will connect Capitola to North County. We can bike to Simpkins [Family Swim Center], we can bike to the [Santa Cruz Beach] Boardwalk. We can bike to West Cliff, and that provides a very safe way of active transportation.”

Orbach also mentioned:

  • Adding protected bike lanes on Clares Street between 41st Avenue and Capitola Road.
  • Connecting the end of Segment 10 of the rail trail to the bike path that crosses Soquel Creek near Nob Hill supermarket.
  • Creating a safer bike route “along the creek side of Wharf Road, between 49th Avenue and Wharf Road intersection and Pacific Coast Manor, which currently has no bike lane and is a nerve-wracking ride with small kids.” 
  • Bike lanes along 38th Avenue between Brommer [Street] and Portola [Drive]. “I know most of that section of the road is in the county, but it could provide a much safer route to the beach than 41st Avenue for Capitola residents. Also with the potential addition of 1,000 new residential units at the Capitola Mall and another 1,000 units along the 41st corridor, we need to make sure there’s a direct connection from the mall area to the rail trail, and the safest route will be along 38th Avenue.”

Several residents told us that affordable housing is their top priority. Where in Capitola would you support denser housing?

The [Capitola] Mall is a great place for us to start. You know, it’s a lot of traffic there. They’d have to put in parking, but I do think that that’s a good location that would help us with some possible more revenue for the city. Also, what that would do with our declining enrollment in our school and in California. I think that that would also bring in more of our youth, so we can get some more people enrolled in our school district. 

There’s just so many things that we can do at that place, like, you know, putting in an indoor soccer field, putting some basketball hoops in there, volleyball, you know, with a little restaurant in the side. I think that that would be a great location, because I know that my children, we have to go to [Las] Vegas, we have to go to San Francisco, we have to go all these different places where we could just stay here. And more people can come to our town to visit for our tournaments.

That’s a really tough one. I think everybody feels that we are already as dense as we can get. 

If we were able to do a mixed-use program with the mall property, I think that could get us housing along with some other businesses, more small business, more things like that in that area that is a more live/work type of space. And I do think it’s a more central location where to live and work would be beneficial. So I, personally, have been wanting to see something like that happen.

So this is something as a vice chair of our [Capitola] Planning Commission I’ve been involved in dealing with for the last two years. Our last planning commission meeting we had probably, I would say, 50-75 people there, which was great to start helping our community be involved. Because I definitely believe community outreach is very important in planning for these things, and also community education. 

You know, when I say that we have to plan for 1,336 [housing units], that’s not a negative. I mean, we have families that are separated from their kids who can’t grow up here, they can’t live here, and so it’s not, it’s not a negative. And we have workforce housing. Housing, I think, is a benefit for many different factors for the community. 

It’s a great opportunity when the vision of the new mall property comes into play, that we can answer many of our housing issues on that site. But with that being said, that does not mean that it all gets housed there. It should be spread out all across our whole entire city.

There’s opportunities on Bay Avenue, there’s opportunities on Capitola Road, there’s opportunities on Clares [Street], there’s opportunities on Capitola Avenue, and I think my planning commissioners that I work side by side with, very much have that same thought process.

I want to see more housing everywhere, right? We can increase density in a way that makes sense for our community and allow for more zoning code updates that would encourage that type of density. 

In every zoning district the city should support additions of ADUs and Junior ADUs in all single-family home residential parcels, as well as in high-density multifamily mixed-use projects along commercial zones. I think in particular where I want to see this mixed-use housing development happen is along the eastern side of 41st avenue, between Clares Street and Capitola Road. I want to see that area prioritized for development and redevelopment. I think city staff should be promoting the use of the state density bonuses. There’s a lot of new state density bonus laws as well. 

In addition to increasing the density in the housing, we really need to think about the transportation impacts of the amount of people that may be coming into this area. So the city should work with the Santa Cruz Metro to identify a large site near the Capitola Mall for a new metro station with affordable housing on top, similar to what is being done in Downtown Santa Cruz and what they’re planning for in Watsonville.

How would you increase communication between the city leadership and residents?

I love that question. I was out there today, down in the village, talking to the different business owners and just getting their ideas on, you know, how can we get more revenue? What do we do? What do we need to do to advertise so people can come down and visit? 

People have always liked to talk to me, and that’s how I would be able to communicate with the residents, I would just go out there, you know, I’m running this campaign. I like parking my car somewhere, getting out, and just walking down the street, and if I see someone, “Hi, how you doing?” And they’re like, “Oh, hi, the weather’s nice”. And then I can just start in and just say, “Oh, well, what do you think about this?” And what do you think about that? And that’s how you get the community’s feedback. 

I think that is progressing as we move forward into this more digital age, and I think a lot of us are on social media, and that provides a lot of transparency. We as a city have started using Instagram and Facebook and things like that. I’ve answered questions in my DMs from people just, you know, simple wonderments, or, ‘Hey, what’s going on over here?’ And I’ve written back, and they’re just like, ‘Wow, cool, thank you.’ Really feeling glad that they have some type of way of outreach. Emails are always welcome. 

The best way to get involved and to understand what’s happening with current events and current issues is to attend the city council meetings.You can always find those agendas posted on our city website, so you know exactly what’s coming down the pike. You know what issues are going to be addressed. 

If there’s something that’s not on that agenda that you want to bring up, you’re more than welcome to come to public comment and state your comments there.

I’ve been out walking precincts, talking to our community. What I’m hearing is that they’re requesting somewhat of a culture change, a better partnership. And that’s not a negative comment towards any part of the city, it’s more or less a change in culture and more community involvement between city council, city and the community altogether. And I think all parts of those hold a certain part, maybe some of the perceived breakdown. And so I would want to be a champion trying to increase that communication. 

One thing I would go back to is right after our wharf was damaged, we came together as a community. We met with the city, and the city was going to rebuild the wharf, but there was going to be zero enhancement. And so myself and nine other amazing, dynamic citizens of Capitola came together and met with the city, and we decided that we want to enhance the wharf. We were thinking, what can we do? And so we pulled together as a group, and we are community focused 100% and we went out for outreach, and we surveyed our community. We had 1,039 responses. 

We raised $425,000, and then we went out and then delivered on what was the problem.

I think more social media content, such as short meeting summaries, videos, can help engage the younger residents and solicit more diverse feedback. The city can also consider virtual meetings to maximize civic involvement.

And, you know, having child care, perhaps teaming up with our parks and rec department who have a room next to the city council chambers. Parents can drop their kids off for a couple hours to do some arts and crafts, have some pizza, while their parents can be publicly and civically engaged. I think that will be a great way to encourage young people to really be a part of the community and be part of the solution and be part of the conversation.

Do you support Measure Y to increase Capitola’s sales tax? How would you spend the money?

I agree, yes, if the money is going to be going to mainly the police officers. And we want to make sure that anyone who works for the city, they’re getting that raise, or they’re getting that money, but what we don’t want for that money is to go somewhere it’s not needed. And so to answer your question, if I got a better understanding of where it was going, I would say yes, but if it’s going into a General Fund, and I don’t exactly know exactly where it’s going to go in that General Fund, OK? And I definitely think that that dollar should go to our police department, city officials, street workers, people who keep our city working.

I do. The sales tax measure is basically to replace an old measure that we had that was for more sort of infrastructure funding for work projects, jetty projects and bloom projects, all of which we have successfully pulled out on. And so basically, we would continue to utilize the tax dollars to keep our staff, keep our police department, public safety, things like that, and it’s just a way to sort of spread the wealth amongst not just residents, but visitors as well, and to help keep Capitola what it is and and maintain our budget too.

I actually do. I’m one of five people that are on the campaign team that got together, worked together, and so I’m out campaigning for it daily, talking to our citizens, explaining to them what the positive things that can be, you know it the one of the biggest driving factors on the tax measure will be bringing our city staff, which includes police, city workers, all to within within 5% of the median salary. And that study has already been conducted by the city and each union group. And again, it’s not 5% over and it’s not average. I mean, it’s still 5% under the median. So I think that is fiscally sound, and you know that we’re looking at doing that, and I’m very much supportive of that. 

I would want to ensure that we had a community-driven citizen group that advised the city council on how they think the additional funds to be used. I would hope and very much lobby that those be used on infrastructure, roads and safe paths to travel for youth and seniors.

Absolutely, yes. Unfortunately, we have a CalPERS obligation, so the pension obligation is real, and I think what we’re allotting it for right now is for public safety and essential city services. So that’s what we’re going to spend the money on.

Do you support an empty home tax in Capitola?

I’m a homeowner here. I have two children. My two children, in 10 years, they move away, I pass on, my wife passes on. But they want to keep this home that they lived in their whole life. They want to come and live here. They want to come during the summer. I don’t want to burden them with a tax payment. You know, they may not be able to afford it, I don’t know. So I don’t want to say something now and then in 25 years it actually is a burden for them where they’re going to have to sell our house.

So me being selfish, and I haven’t talked to a lot of the community members about it, and I should, I would say ‘no’ for now.  But I can see the other side where, you know, they’re just sitting there and they’re not using it. So again, those are tricky questions, and I’d have to talk to the community and see what the community would really feel about that.

I think it’s something that should definitely be looked at. But I think for Capitola specifically, we would really have to see how we would be able to monitor that, where the funds would come from, who are you paying to monitor what, how this is happening. There’s a lot of different things and I’m not really sure what the best way to go about it would be. But I think with our housing issues, it would be something worth looking into.

I wouldn’t support it now without additional information, and I think the only way I could support a measure like that would be maybe it would be a phased-in thing. 

There needs to be a lot of work done for that question. I think for anybody to answer yes or no, you know, I would say, for one thing, what? What’s the money need to be used for? Is it used for infrastructure, roads? It might have a different way of somebody saying they support it for certain different things. We are a very small city, and we can’t really afford legal battles. And so I know before, when this was brought up in 2022 to our city council, it was discussed just more or less from an informational standpoint, and I agree with the decision of the city council that time, and they deferred and waited to see what the Santa Cruz measure came back at, and it came back with a fail rate.

I’m very much into democracy, and if that was a ballot measure I would just be concerned that people with second homes would be allowed to vote on the measure in Capitola if they weren’t registering to vote here.

I don’t know. We have to look into this more, right? We’ll have to see what the implications are, what it means for the city if we do something like this, and whether we can enforce this, whether it’s an enforceable law. So we’ll have to study and consider before we implement something like this.

Incumbent Margaux Morgan on her record

Margaux Morgan has served on the Capitola City Council since 2020. Santa Cruz Local asked her questions about her record as a council member.

What have been your top accomplishments as a council member?

Well, I had a huge accomplishment during the storms of 2023. I was able to meet President Biden when he came and toured our wonderful city. Not that that necessarily says all that about me, it just was a huge opportunity. And I just was really fortunate to be able to be the face of our city. It gave me great, great honor and joy to be there and receive him. 

We’ve done quite a bit of work with regaining accessibility to our wharf. And so that’s a huge one. To get back out there and let our community and visitors be able to take part in that is something I’m really looking forward to. It’ll show a lot of our hard work, along with some nonprofits and groups that have helped us along the way.

What have you done as a city council member to create more affordable housing in Capitola?

We just adopted our [Regional Housing Needs Allocation] numbers from the state, and so that has a lot to do with affordable housing, and what that looks like for our city. We are in the process of rezoning so that affordable housing can be developed. You know the problem is it really isn’t [being developed] right now. So as a council, we have to work in conjunction with the state and figure out areas where more dense housing or more affordable housing could be built. There are certain benefits for the developers if they’re willing to put a certain percentage of affordability in new builds and things like that. So that’s something that we kind of oversee and make sure that you know that that’s available to people, so that it sweetens the pot a little bit and makes it something that people want to add into.

What have you done to prioritize communication between residents and city leaders?

I think communication is huge, and I think that, you know, being out in the public is something that is important. Basically because of where I live and my job, I get to be in the public quite often. I also am huge on supporting our village and our small businesses, restaurants, shops, all the like. So that’s on my ‘time off.’ That’s what I’m doing. I support those people around me, and I make myself accessible, not only just on social media, but or at a meeting or whatnot, but I attend functions, things like that. 

You have to be a part of the community to hear from the community. And so that’s, important. I’ve gained really good relationships with a lot of people that I probably wouldn’t [otherwise] know. And that’s something that I think shows on both sides, you know, being an elected and being somebody that’s willing to have conversations.

What does the Capitola City Council do?

The Capitola City Council is a five-member elected body that creates city laws, sets the city’s budget and oversees city functions.

The council has the power to:

  • Decide where and how much housing gets built in the city’s General Plan.
  • Reject or approve programs.
  • Allocate money to projects, departments and programs.
  • Hire and fire the city manager.
  • Propose taxes.

“The purpose of the city council is to establish local laws, to set policy, to reject or to approve programs, to allocate funds and provide direction, through the city manager, to city staff to implement its policy. The council can also appoint members to various local and regional committees, commissions and other boards,” according to the City of Capitola website.

Desirable qualifications for candidates include:

  • A willingness to work with other council members to craft policies.
  • An ability to understand complex budgets.
  • Broad interests: The council’s oversight includes contracts with city employee unions, the police department, planning for growth, and public buildings and parks.
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