Ben Lomond • Age: 72 • Occupation: Regional manager BAM Homes ADU
What are the top issues for the 5th district?
In my opinion the top 4 issues of the 5th District are:
- The county’s failure to allow CZU Fire victims to rebuild their homes.
- Repair of storm damaged infrastructure and our major roads.
- Increase fire and disaster preparedness for future emergencies.
- Measure K
It costs me almost $100,000 more to place one of our manufactured homes in Santa Cruz County than for some homes in other California counties. 100% of this extra cost is due to fees, additional charges and other reports required by our county.
Reducing those costs dramatically would be a good start in making housing more affordable in the 5th District.
What thoughts do you have on boosting affordable housing, finding real solutions for homelessness and the daily traffic jams on Highway 1?
The daily traffic jams along Highway 9 are caused county and Caltrans road repair work being done in several places.
Rather than drag the work out for months, I would allow the private sector contractors to bid on the work and award the job to contractors based upon price, experience and time of completion.
I would require that the work be done at night so not to impact the heavy usage during the day on these roads.
Can you talk about your housing situation? Homeowner or renter? How does that help you relate to 5th District constituents?
We’ve owned our home in Ben Lomond for many years. The CZU Fire came within a half a mile of our home. It was a great blessing that our home was spared.
Our youngest son along with friends from the community and our church lost their homes in the fire.
This is the reason we have chosen to rebuilding homes in the 5th District.
Can you describe your family situation? Married/single? Children/pets?
I’ve been married many years to the finest woman I’ve ever known. We have six children and nineteen grandchildren.
Your favorite spot in the 5th district? You spend your free time doing what?
In my free time my wife and enjoy hiking the many trails in Henry Cowell Park.
How long have you lived in Santa Cruz County? What brought you here?
We decided to make our second home in Ben Lomond our primary residence almost twenty years ago because of the mountains, the redwood forests and the ocean and the people.
What prompted you to run?
I decided to run after I realized that the County planning, building and environmental health department appears to be against allowing people to rebuild the homes that they lost in the CZU Fire.
Will you push back against the state demands for more housing, as the state auditor says those numbers were based on unsupported assumptions? See https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-125.pdf
This year will be fourth year since the CZU Fire destroyed almost 1,100 family homes in Santa Cruz County.
After four years, less than 5% of these homes have been rebuilt. So far, our county has demonstrated they are unable to allow even the homes that were lost the CZU Fire to be rebuilt.
Based upon their total failure to perform this basic task, expecting our county to now provide several hundred new state mandated housing is in my opinion a fantasy.
People in this district feel we are running out of room for new residents. Not enough water, not enough electricity — PG&E brownouts — and potholes instead of well-maintained roads. What do you say?
We had enough water, electricity and room for the 550 families before the CZU Fire destroyed their homes.
Less than 34 of these homes have been rebuilt since the fire four years ago. Simple math would show that we are about 500 homes from being back to the number of homes that we had in the 5th District four years ago.
PG&E brownouts and pot-holes are additional signs that our current system needs to be reexamined and reformed.
In the first 10 months of 2023, Santa Cruz County Coroner Stephany Fiore tallied 115 accidental fatal drug overdoses. County health officials want to be more proactive. What more could be done?
Fatal drug overdoses caused by Fentanyl smuggled across the Southern border of our county is a national crisis. We are losing over 300,000 Americans every year to Fentanyl overdoses.
That’s more Americans than were lost in World War II. It’s a national problem that must be addressed and solved on a local level.
