The Nov. 3 election will decide three seats on the Scotts Valley City Council. Incumbents Jack Dilles, Randy Johnson, and Donna Lind face a challenge from newcomer John Lewis.
The Scotts Valley Times asked the candidates three questions:
- What are the three most pressing issues you would address in the next four years?
- What are your solutions?
- Has COVID-19 or anything else shifted your priorities? If so, how?
Here are their answers:
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Donna Lind
I’ve served the City of Scotts Valley for the past 52 years, starting as City Hall Secretary and becoming the first Scotts Valley female police officer, later a sergeant.
Donna Lind
I’m proud to have served 40 years with Scotts Valley Police Department before elected to City Council 12 years ago. I bring a proven record of experience, work ethics and commitment to the City.
While serving with City Council, including 2 terms as Mayor, I have served with a variety of commissions including Santa Margarita Groundwater Agency, METRO, LAFCO, Senior Commissions, Criminal Justice Agency, Traffic Safety, AMBAG and more. My experience and history have enabled me to be a strong advocate for Scotts Valley in a wide variety of areas including grant funding for projects benefiting the City.
The City faces a huge challenge with economic recovery following the devastation created by the pandemic and CZU fires. This particularly hit hard since Scotts Valley had been working to recover from a fiscal crisis before the pandemic. Having served with the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce for the past 15 years, I have the experience and relationships to continue my work to support local businesses in recovery.
I know many of our local business owners and I have been working hard to support local business wherever possible. I will continue to advocate for them and assist in recovery. I will also continue outreach and incentives to bring new quality businesses to Scotts Valley.
Public Safety is also a priority. Scotts Valley Police Officers are paid 25% less than other law enforcement agencies in the County. Due to this disparity, Scotts Valley Police Department has had the highest turnover in the history of the Department.
In March 2020, citizens of Scotts Valley voted to pass a sales tax measure with a priority to maintain public safety. Two weeks after the sales tax passed, the pandemic hit.
Although the City had planned to address the salary disparity, the financial impact of the pandemic shifted the City’s priority to survival. Unless this disparity can be addressed soon, Scotts Valley Police Department will continue to lose quality police officers whose work has resulted in the City of Scotts Valley having been named the 14th safest city in California.
Recruitment & retention of quality officers is vital to provide the public safety Scotts Valley citizens deserve. As the City recovers economically, public safety funding is a priority.
Scotts Valley City services are also challenged. Important staff positions were lost during the City’s fiscal crisis and the pandemic. Scotts Valley cut City personnel following the 2008 great recession. Currently Scotts Valley has 25% fewer employees than in the early ‘90s.
The City has worked to be creative in working with the reduced staff. However, this personnel shortage is infringing on the City’s ability to provide necessary services. Economic recovery is critical in replacing critical positions and improving services. Upon re-election, I will continue my work in economic recovery and to obtain funds to support City services.
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Jack Dilles
Finances: The city must focus on finances. Because sales taxes and hotel taxes make up 50% of the General Fund budget, and because these revenues took a $2 million hit from COVID-19 impacts last fiscal year, the city was forced to burn through $2 million in cash reserves.
Jack Dilles
In the current year, the city was forced to cut more than $1 million from the annual $13 million budget by not funding vacant positions in the Police, Community Development, and Public Works Departments and by cutting other costs.
Further, the city suspended most Recreation positions and programs because of a sharp drop in recreation revenues.
These impacts were unfortunate because just last March, Scotts Valley voters approved Measure Z, a sales tax measure which would have stabilized finances and preserved service levels.
Quality of Life/Housing Balance: Scotts Valley is growing and housing projects are proposed or underway. It is essential that we maintain our small-town character, and yet the city needs some growth for a healthy economy and to house workers.
Property owners have the right to build housing if their properties are zoned for residential. Further, the State has required cities to set housing goals and has taken away local control over some development.
For instance, it is almost impossible to rezone property zoned as residential to open space, commercial or industrial.
Town Center: The city has struggled for many years to attract retail businesses and fully develop the town center, despite good efforts.
The latest proposal was halted by the developer during the early stages. The city heard from residents concerned about the amount of proposed housing and questions were raised about the small amount of proposed retail, among other issues.
Solutions
Finances: The city should rebuild Police, Public Works and Recreation service levels to levels that the community expects, reduce Police Department turnover, and manage finances in a way that will pave the way for a stable and bright future. This would be dependent upon the return of typical taxable sales and hotel tax revenue.
The city first needs to get past COVID-19. At that point, the city can more rationally update five-year financial projections and determine the best course of action.
Quality of Life/Housing Balance: My focus in building new homes is two-fold. First, I would like the city to expand the inclusionary zone where housing projects must include 15% of homes as affordable.
This zone currently covers only the Scotts Valley Drive and Mt. Hermon Road corridors, and I am advocating to expand this zone to the city limits.
Second, I would like to encourage interested homeowners to add an accessory dwelling unit (“ADU”) on their properties as an investment.
This would add rental housing units in a way that would not change neighborhoods and would provide an opportunity for residents to earn rental income. This would be a win for both the homeowner and renters.
I don’t believe that new homes in Scotts Valley generate enough taxes to pay for services they receive from the city, so the city should be cautious about building too many homes, especially when the city is struggling financially.
Where the city has control, large housing developments should only be built in Scotts Valley if the benefits clearly outweigh negative impacts.
Town Center: It is time to revisit the 2008 town center specific plan and envision something different.
I would like Scotts Valley to reimagine what could be, with a focus on economic development. The city must also honor an existing affordable housing obligation in the town center.
I would like to explore other concepts such as developing outdoor oriented businesses or building a convention center. Focusing on the outdoors would build on the city’s green image.
The city should also continue to focus on getting the nearby Kmart building and other vacant commercial buildings back in business.
COVID-19
COVID-19 has seriously impacted city finances. After the passage of Measure Z, the city was positioned to restore services to residents and businesses with new revenue.
However, COVID-19 forced the city to take a giant step backward and the city was forced to reduce rather than restore services. As a result, city finances now require more attention than was expected six months ago.
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John Lewis
My top 3 issues are the budget, the budget, and the budget. Scotts Valley was very lucky to have companies like Netflix, Seagate, Fox, and a number of other high revenue-generating companies call Scotts Valley their home and these businesses have moved on.
John Lewis
Scotts Valley has been slow to react. We need to build new revenue streams to pay for the police force / public safety, children’s programs, and the expenses the city has committed itself to.
We have outsourced everything we reasonably can, raised sales taxes to the highest possible rate, burned through the reserve fund. We can no longer let languishing projects stall out and turn into blight. We can no longer hope a new company will be founded here and pay the bills for us. We must actively decide what we want to be, and we have to work towards getting there.
We must consider development opportunities with an eye towards saying yes. If the proposal is ugly, we have to ask that the developer invest in the beauty of our city rather than stall the project out.
We have to strongly consider ideas like Jack Dilles’ suggestion we build a much-needed conference center.
We have to build affordable housing so public safety workers, teachers, etc. have a place to live. We cannot price essential people out, we have to open our doors to people who want to build their life here and invest themselves in Scotts Valley.
The time to let old projects languish is over. If we do not take control of our future, the future will leave us behind.
The city of Scotts Valley currently uses 55% of its general fund to pay for the police department. The police force still does not have the funding they need to be fully staffed, or offer competitive wages.
We have suspended a number of programs to educate and enrich the lives of our children, which jeopardizes the future of the Scotts Valley.
We have a town center project that is 20 years in the making and phase 1 has given us a 4th place to buy Starbucks coffee and we have a building called the hangar in a place where we tore down a hangar at the beginning of this project.
I have fresh eyes to these issues and I am disappointed we have local leadership that considers this a success.
Scotts Valley has to decide on a path forward. Are we going to turn ourselves into a sleepy bedroom community for Silicon Valley, or are we going to build our own businesses and make our own opportunity?
Are we going to approve projects that excite us at the prospect of something new or are we going to build another strip mall with a high vacancy rate?
Opportunities are presented to us every day. If we choose to say that nothing changes, then we have to figure out what we have to cut to make ends meet. I think we are capable of more.
I think we can embrace change and make it what we want it to be. We can create the type of experiences that excite us to go downtown and interact with our neighbors.
We can say yes to new business with the caveat that it is done in a way that puts the natural beauty of Scotts Valley front and center. I came to Scotts Valley because I wanted to be nestled into the mountains and be surrounded by trees, businesses want this, too.
Opening the doors to businesses will provide us better jobs, greater tax revenues, and the opportunity to invest in the lives of our children and pay for public safety services.
I know the prospect of change is difficult, but my ears are open and my eyes are, too. I welcome feedback and I am not afraid to say sorry when I make a mistake.
I worry that Scotts Valley is on the path to bankruptcy. As someone new to the community I have bright eyes and like you I chose to build my family in Scotts Valley.
I think we can put in the work, I think we can build a future to be proud of.
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Randy Johnson
Keeping our city intact in the face of a life-altering pandemic. Restoring Scotts Valley’s budget so we can continue to provide services to our citizens. Work to provide a city-wide defensible space against wildfires.
Randy Johnson
The economic threat that Covid-19 presented was and is real. It is a peril that confronts us daily and must be dealt with. Our very real intent is to keep our city as it was before Covid-19 hit and affected our lives.
Businesses are threatened and we need to do everything in our power to make sure they survive. We formed the Local Economic Recovery Committee to meet those challenges In the early stages of the pandemic, there was a lot of uncertainty about the rules and conditions imposed by the state and the county. If you were an “essential” business, you could at least keep the doors open.
But many businesses were literally locked out and we tried to manage that inequity. We established lines of communication with the SV Chamber of Commerce and that partnership has been very productive.
Vice-Mayor Timm and I meet every week with them as well to provide information and coordinate our efforts. Our committee keeps citizens informed about the ever-changing status of rules and regulations.
Because restaurants are very vulnerable, we are moving forward with ideas and plans on how best to “winterize” those businesses so they will be around in the spring. We follow closely the many federal and state grants and funding opportunities and pass that information onto the Chamber to be given to their members.
I think the watchword for our city is in a word, survival. Our budget has never been so challenged as it is today. In March and April, Covid-19 represented an existential threat to our city in how our revenues have been diminished and our services compromised.
That threat has eased somewhat, but we are still vulnerable to many contingencies, including a resurgence of the virus.
Our hotel taxes are measurably lower, along with sales tax. Our goal is to use our financial reserves to come through this crisis and restore a sense of normalcy to our community.
Our task is to use all of our powers to pivot and adapt as each crisis presents itself and provide the type of leadership that will see us through these very surreal times.
The CZU fire taught us many things.
It revealed in the starkest terms that we a vulnerable to wildfires and it is a threat that we must confront in a systematic way.
We saw a massive mobilization of firefighters and equipment in response to the menace. That reaction saved lives and property. My goal is for our city to coordinate with various branches of government, including federal and state, to foster a comprehensive plan to create a defensible space for our community.
A proactive program that improves forest management and brush clearance is attainable. Working locally, our fire district already helps and directs homeowners in how to clear, trim and remove vegetation that can pose a threat to their homes.
My vision is that we encourage state agencies to assess and act in confronting the more global threat posed by underbrush and dead trees and remove them in a systematic way.
That might be a 5- or 10-year program, but it must be encouraged so as to provide a level of comfort to our community that we are serious about this issue. I have asked the city manager to explore those possibilities.
COVID-19
Covid-19 has had a sobering and lasting impact on our lives. It forces us to be resourceful and resilient.
With lagging revenues and faltering businesses, we must continue to work hard and maybe even more importantly, work together.
One of the most difficult emotions to deal with is uncertainty, but our intent is to confront this challenge in a measured and consistent way to insure a resumption of normalcy for our community.