See where District 5 San Diego County supervisor candidates stand on issues you care about

A:

1. Homes people can afford: Families who grew up here should be able to stay here. Sky-high rents and home prices are pushing our families out. We will create a North County Housing Partnership that turns vacant lots and surplus public land into mixed-income neighborhoods, and we’ll protect existing renters from sudden, unfair rent hikes.  
2. Safe, thriving communities: Safety is more than police response, it is well-lit streets, engaged youth programs and neighbors who know one another. We’ll expand community policing, fund after-school clubs and ensure every neighborhood, from Oceanside to Valley Center, has the resources to prosper.  
3. Economic opportunity for all: Our children deserve the chance to build careers here, not move away. By investing in workforce training for clean tech, sustainable agriculture and the blue economy, we’ll create good local jobs while supporting small-business owners and entrepreneurs.

A: Homelessness is personal: Many of us have a neighbor or relative who is one paycheck, one medical bill or one missed rent away from the streets. I’ll lead with urgency and compassion:  

• Housing first, help always: Convert under-used motels, office parks and county property into supportive housing with on-site mental-health, addiction and job-placement services. Every person deserves a door that locks and a path back to stability.  
• Build “missing-middle” homes: Partner with local builders and nonprofits to create attainable homes for working families, duplexes, granny flats and starter condos near transit, while streamlining permits and fees that drive up costs. Updating outdated laws and policies that work for the people. 
• Rent relief and prevention: Expand emergency rental assistance, legal aid and mediation so families don’t fall into homelessness in the first place. Prevention is humane and far less costly than shelter beds or jail cells.

A: North County residents spend too much time in traffic and too little time with family. 

My plan: 

• Fix first: Pave potholes, improve drainage and strengthen bridges, prioritizing school routes and evacuation corridors.  
• Fast, frequent transit: Double SPRINTER and COASTER frequency, add express bus lanes on the state route 78/76 corridors and create low-fare “one county, one pass” pricing so buses, trains and trolleys work as a single system.  
• Safe streets for all: Complete a protected bike-and-walking network linking neighborhoods to schools, beaches and job centers. This improves health, cuts congestion and reduces emissions. 
• Broadband as infrastructure: Partner with internet providers and tribes to deliver affordable high-speed internet to every home, farm and small business, because 21st-century jobs, telehealth and education depend on it.

A: Safety isn’t just about sirens; it’s about trust and opportunity. I will: 

• Strengthen community policing: Ensure every sheriff’s deputy knows the neighborhoods they serve, and require body-worn cameras and transparent reporting to build trust.  
• Expand mobile crisis response: Pair mental-health professionals with deputies so people in crisis get care, not cuffs. This frees officers to focus on violent crime and saves taxpayer money. 
• Invest in youth and re-entry: Fund mentorship, trade apprenticeships and after-school programs, proven to cut juvenile crime. For those leaving jail, provide job placement and housing support to break the cycle of re-offense.  
• Safer public spaces: Increase lighting, improve park maintenance and bolster wildfire readiness, including defensible-space grants for homeowners, so safety extends from our streets to our backcountry.

A:

• Clear, enforceable targets: Adopt science-based emissions goals with transparent scorecards updated yearly, so residents can track real progress.  
• Clean energy everywhere: Fast-track rooftop solar permits to 48-hour approvals, expand micro-grids on tribal lands and public buildings, and offer low-income households’ rebates for heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.  
• Water and wildfire resilience: Invest in recycled-water projects, native habitat restoration and expanded firebreak crews staffed by local veterans and CalFire, and implement tribal cultural burns.
• Green jobs pipeline: Partner with community colleges to train the next generation of solar installers, electricians and restoration workers — good careers that also protect our planet.

A: With nearly half our budget devoted to people, we must deliver:  

1. Mental health and addiction recovery: Build community wellness hubs offering same-day counseling, detox and supportive housing. Early help saves lives and money. Create transitional and permanent housing facilities with workforce training and self-sustainability. 
2. Seniors and caregivers: Launch a “Living Well at Home” initiative, meals, transportation and respite care, so elders can age with dignity and families get support.  
3. Child wellness: Expand early-learning slots, school-based health clinics and nutrition programs; healthy kids become thriving students and future leaders.

A: Cut: Consolidate duplicative consultant contracts across departments, saving an estimated $8–10 million annually. We have incredible expertise in-house and at our local universities; let’s use it.  

New expense: Seed a $15 million annual Workforce Housing Trust. Each county dollar can leverage state, federal and private funds to produce or preserve affordable homes for singles, families and professionals — keeping our talent local.

A: Leadership should serve the people, not entrench itself in power. I oppose extending term limits without a clear, transparent benefit to residents. Any shift in authority must be decided by voters with full disclosure of fiscal impacts and robust public debate.

A: San Diego’s most overlooked issue is water replenishment: We draw heavily from imported sources yet invest too little in restoring and re-using what we already have. We can change that by scaling proven strategies:  

• Pure water recycling – Expand the city’s Pure Water program countywide, treating wastewater to potable standards and injecting it into local reservoirs and aquifers; this can ultimately supply up to 40% of our demand. 
• Stormwater capture – Retrofit parks, parking lots and roadways with permeable pavement and bioswales that funnel rain into underground cisterns and recharge basins instead of storm drains that dump it to the ocean.  
• Greywater incentives – Offer rebates for home and business systems that reuse shower and laundry water for landscaping, trimming outdoor consumption by up to 30%.  
• Agricultural partnerships – Fund on-farm recharge ponds in North County valleys, restoring groundwater while giving farmers drought insurance.  
• Coastal desalination upgrades – Modernize existing plants with energy-efficient membranes and pair them with offshore solar to lower costs and emissions.

Together, these steps create a resilient, locally sourced water cycle that secures San Diego’s future.

A: I was born and raised in North County; my first apartment was in Escondido. I know what it’s like to balance multiple jobs, to worry about rent, and to fight for a seat at the table. I’ve led my tribe through negotiations that delivered jobs, housing and environmental protections for all our neighbors, not just our own people.  

I will bring that same spirit of collaboration, transparency and tenacity to the Board of Supervisors. My campaign is rooted in listening circles — from coastal seniors to inland farmers, military families to small-business owners. I will be a bridge-builder who leads with both head and heart, ensuring every community sees itself in county decisions.  

While others talk about tomorrow, I have lived the challenges we face today. If you want a supervisor who understands your struggles, uplifts your voice and fights for tangible results, vote Norma Contreras. Let’s shape a North County where everyone can belong, prosper and dream big.

A: 

1. Balancing the budget and fighting against new taxes – Because San Diego’s working families can’t afford to pay more. We must build more attainable single-family housing, not more high-rise, high-density rental housing. As mayor, I fought to build single-family housing and to maintain our suburban and semi-rural community character.
2. Homelessness and addiction: We must respond with compassion and accountability, including enforcing our laws. In Vista, I created an award-winning homelessness strategic plan, built a 48-bed navigation center that has helped 180 individuals escape street homelessness by finding permanent housing, and used drug and law enforcement to eliminate encampments.
3. Public safety including crime and fire preparedness: Policing and fire prevention need to be the first priority of county government, not the first budget item to be threatened and held hostage to tax-increase demands. As mayor, I funded more sheriff’s deputies and firefighters. We increased ambulance service and implemented cutting edge wildfire detection technologies.

A: High-rise, high-density rental housing did not make New York, San Francisco or L.A. more affordable, and it isn’t making San Diego more affordable either.

Our supervisors enacted the most restrictive housing policy in California, designed to prevent the development of new single-family housing. It has done just that. It forces all new housing to be built in city centers, urbanizing our communities. That may be fine for downtown, but none of us in North County signed on for the kind of problems that high-density brings – urban decay, crime, traffic and unaffordable housing. We chose a suburban, semi-rural area of the county to avoid these ills, and we don’t want to see our communities urbanized.

Attainable housing can be built in new communities, without burdening existing cities or unincorporated villages. Instead, we are forcing young families to rent or drive to Temecula to find quality housing.

A: We must reform the San Diego Association of Governments. SANDAG has failed at building the roads and infrastructure we need in North County, especially improvements to State Route 78 and its interchanges with I-15 and I-5 we’ve been promised for decades. We’ve been taxed billions of dollars through the TransNet tax, yet traffic is worse than ever and we’ve seen no progress on those promises. 

Instead of real relief, we’ve gotten studies, delays and new tax proposals. SANDAG just approved a $125 billion regional spending plan that caters to a tiny fraction of commuter miles traveled — and it’s built on $18 billion in new tax hikes. 

Why would taxpayers believe that more taxes would finally get politicians to do something they have promised and failed to deliver on for over four decades and $9.4 billion in tax revenue later?

To improve our roads, North County must fundamentally rethink its relationship with SANDAG. Forcing suburban commuter cities to sit at the table with the city of San Diego controlling 42 of 100 weighted votes on the SANDAG board is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.  North County cities like Vista, Escondido, San Marcos and Oceanside are collectively large enough to form their own Metropolitan Planning Organization — one focused on road improvements, congestion relief and the realities of how our residents actually travel.

A: The sheriff is asking for new jail facilities, and we desperately need them in San Diego County. Too many offenders are “failing to appear” or FTA for serious non-violent misdemeanors like shoplifting and drug dealing. Under the U.S. Constitution, no person can be convicted unless given a trial they are present at in court. We are currently allowing huge numbers of criminals to evade accountability for their crimes by failing to use jail to bring them to justice in a courtroom when they fail to appear voluntarily. 

It’s time to end the failed experiment with criminal justice reform and restore order to our communities and save thousands from drug death on our streets. 

A: San Diego County’s “Vehicle Miles Traveled” or VMT policy is an environmental policy that attacks home affordability for working families by preventing the building of new homes in the county and forcing the explosive growth of high-rise, high-density rental housing in cities like Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido. VMT amounts to a massive tax that makes building new communities cost-prohibitive. We could build new homes near Ramona, for example, where land is plentiful and single-family housing would be attainable. Instead, our extreme climate agenda forces families to commute to Temecula. Those commutes are not doing anything to reduce vehicle miles or greenhouse gases.

A: The county gets a failing grade on solving homelessness and providing real solutions for mental health. San Diego County utilizes conservatorship less than many other populous county in the state. Our county special care facilities can receive individuals in conservatorship or individuals who stipulate to confined treatment in a residential nursing setting with a prosecution diversion agreement.

We must use involuntary treatment to end homelessness, death and the abandonment of the severely mentally ill to our streets and aging parents who are unequipped to manage care for a severely mentally ill child. 

Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe want to massively expand county provided healthcare to illegal and temporary immigrants – something county taxpayers just cannot afford. This plan to massively grow government is at the center of their three abominable tax increase proposals

A: I support term limits. Voters approved these term limits and should reject changes to them. It is anticipated that supervisors will attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of voters by pretending this measure is a new implementation of term limits instead of a weakening of term limits. I will bring public attention to any dishonest attempt to mislead voters.

A: The board majority’s extreme policies need to be moderated. Spending millions on attorneys for illegal immigrants, including defense for aggravated felonies, $26 million on “welcome centers” for illegal immigrants and adopting the Super Sanctuary policy (which seeks to protect convicted murderers, rapists and child molesters from deportation) is wrong and must be stopped.

What has received little attention is the fact that Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe have been quite open about their intention to make up for what Lawson-Remer says is a $300 million loss in federal funding and provide county taxpayer funded health and welfare benefits to 1) illegal aliens, 2) non-permanent immigrants and 3) able-bodied persons who refuse work requirements. President Bill Clinton supported these restrictions, and I do, too. This expansion of benefits, on top of a projected $320 million deficit, is grossly irresponsible.

That’s the real reason that Lawson-Remer is proposing $1 billion in new taxes – to fund the largest expansion of government in the history of San Diego County.

Citizens of good conscience will debate whether we should provide unlimited healthcare and food assistance for those who are here illegally and those who refuse welfare-to-work requirements, but few will agree that we should increase taxes to pay for this massive expansion of government. To be clear, I do not support either.

A: I am the only candidate in this race who has neither raised taxes nor supported future tax increases. I have been leading the opposition to county tax hike proposals since early 2025, including my March 19, 2025 commentary in The San Diego Union-Tribune and my April 2025 press conference opposing Chair Lawson-Remer’s State of the County proposals. 

Mayor Rebecca Jones only recently decided to oppose new county taxes, but her record speaks louder than campaign rhetoric. She voted to place a 1% sales tax increase on the San Marcos ballot on July 9, 2024 and voted to advance multiple SANDAG tax increase ballot measures, including a .75% countywide sales tax, as part of the regional transportation plan on Dec. 12. 

To cover for her three-time tax-hiking record, Jones has been falsely attacking me with bald-face lies about my record, but she can’t give a single specific detail to back up her wild claims.  Supervisor Jim Desmond, Congressman Darrell Issa and Tony Krvaric, chairman emeritus of the Republican Party of San Diego County, all weighed in, adding their names to the fact that I have never supported or voted for a tax increase. Her lies are fantastical. 

Kyle Krahel has attempted to distance himself from current tax proposals, but his record tells a different story. As former chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, he supported every tax increase on the ballot in 2024.

My top three priorities are quality of life, affordability and public safety. These issues are directly connected to whether families can thrive in San Diego County.

Quality of life means clean and safe neighborhoods, manageable traffic, reliable infrastructure, parks, responsive government and communities where families want to stay and invest. Too many residents feel daily life has become harder.

Affordability is critical because San Diego County remains one of the most expensive regions in the country, with housing, utilities and transportation costs putting pressure on working families. 

Public safety is foundational. The county funds major regional services including the sheriff, behavioral health, emergency response and wildfire preparedness. If people do not feel safe, quality of life suffers.

A: We need a balanced strategy focused on results — one that prioritizes both public safety and human dignity. San Diego County’s annual Point-in-Time Count reported 9,803 people experiencing homelessness in 2026, including 5,108 unsheltered, which makes clear the current approach is not working. As mayor of San Marcos, I’ve taken meaningful, balanced action to address homelessness, always focusing on both public safety and human dignity.

Banned unsafe encampments: I led efforts to prohibit unsafe public encampments while ensuring our city partnered with trusted regional providers to connect people to real, long-term solutions—not just temporary fixes.

Mental health and shelter access: Through San Marcos’ annual $120,000 investment in regional shelter services, we’ve helped individuals access shelter, mental health care and pathways to  permanent housing. According to recent regional reporting, San Marcos had the largest year-over-year decline in unsheltered homelessness in San Diego County while many surrounding areas saw increases. That tells us this balanced, accountable approach works. On housing, supply matters. We need to streamline permitting, reduce delays and build housing near jobs, transit and services. In San Marcos, we advanced thousands of homes through long-term planning tied to infrastructure and economic development. That’s how you increase affordability without sacrificing quality of life.

A: For nearly 20 years as a San Marcos councilmember, vice mayor and mayor, I’ve worked to make life more affordable and accessible for families, workers and students. As mayor, I’ve proven that smart infrastructure decisions can lower costs while improving the quality of life. At the county level, we need to focus on practical improvements: road repair, congestion relief, synchronized signals and infrastructure planning that supports housing and job growth before development occurs. Here’s what I’ve already delivered:

Stopped local road user tax: I worked for over four months to defeat a proposal that would have charged drivers for every mile, saving families thousands annually in potential commuting costs.

Microtransit innovation: We connected four SPRINTER rail stations, 72 BREEZE bus stops, two college campuses and hundreds of businesses, giving residents — including 40,000 students — affordable alternatives to car ownership.

A: I’ve made public safety the cornerstone of my leadership. Under my watch, San Marcos achieved one of the lowest crime rates across the county, ranked in the Top 15 safest cities throughout California, and is recognized as one of America’s safest college towns. That didn’t happen by accident — it’s the result of deliberate investment and strong partnerships:

Expanded police presence: At the community’s request, we found a way to open a sheriff’s substation to improve response times and neighborhood safety.

Safer schools: I prioritized funding for school resource officers to protect students on campus when the school board lacked the resources.

Elite fire department: Improve standards, recruitment, and training. San Marcos achieved a Class 1 Public Protection Classification, placing our fire department in the top 1% nationwide — improving emergency response capability while also helping lower insurance premiums for residents and businesses. It’s a blueprint for other areas in the county.

At the county level, I will build on that success by ensuring strong staffing for law enforcement and emergency responders, targeting fentanyl trafficking and repeat offenders and strengthening coordination across agencies. Public safety also includes mental health crisis response and wildfire preparedness — because safety is about the full picture of community well-being. I’m ready to bring that same results-driven leadership to the entire county as your next supervisor.

A: We should focus on practical environmental results that improve everyday life. That means wildfire mitigation, water reliability, cleaner air, open space protection, and resilient infrastructure.

A: With roughly 40% of the county budget dedicated to Health and Human Services, we must ensure those dollars are producing real results. My top priorities would be behavioral health, homelessness prevention and services for seniors, veterans and vulnerable children. Mental health and addiction treatment are especially critical because they directly impact homelessness, public safety and emergency room capacity. This is also where my experience matters. In San Marcos, we’ve made targeted investments — like our $120,000 annual contribution to regional shelter and mental health services — to ensure people can access care and move toward stability. At the county level, I would expand treatment capacity, improve coordination across agencies and require measurable outcomes for every program. Taxpayers deserve accountability, and residents deserve services that actually work.

A: San Diego families are already feeling the pressure at the checkout line, the gas pump and with their personal budgets. One budget cut should be duplicative administrative overhead, outside consultants and programs that cannot demonstrate results. Every dollar wasted is a dollar unavailable for core services. One necessary new expense is expanded behavioral health treatment capacity — detox beds, crisis stabilization and inpatient treatment. Investing upstream reduces long-term costs in jails, emergency room visits, homelessness response and public safety. Two supervisors just proposed spending $2.75 million in our tax dollars on giveaways and a brand-new arts bureaucracy — new staff, new programs, and money flowing out of North County. That’s misdirected priorities.

A: I do not support this change. The voters of San Diego County voted overwhelmingly in 2010 – over 68% said “Yes” for term limits. We should trust and respect their decision, not override it. Additionally, I believe that supervisors voting to increase their own term limits is wrong. This action is self-serving, and it’s something residents in this county do not support.

A: The most overlooked issue is the declining day-to-day quality of life in many communities: traffic congestion, neglected roads, rising costs, slower response times, park maintenance and neighborhood safety concerns. When voters hire us to oversee government practices, they deserve responsive customer service. These issues may not generate headlines, but they shape people’s lives every day. I would bring a performance-based approach to basic services and ensure suburban and unincorporated communities receive the attention they deserve.

A: Because I bring a proven record of creating blueprints to some of the region’s toughest problems, from housing to job growth. As mayor of San Marcos, I helped balance budgets, protect reserves, support public safety, attract jobs and advance housing and infrastructure improvements. My efficiency efforts in San Marcos identified and eliminated over $1 million in government waste, which I then brought to our regional transit authority, SANDAG, as well. I know how to get government to do more with less. I am resourceful, have creative ideas and know how to live within a budget, as we all do at home. I’m running to make San Diego County more affordable, safer and a better place to live, work and raise a family. I want my kids and your kids to find a home here, too.

A: Affordability, homelessness, and protecting critical services from federal cuts. These are the three issues I hear about most from families across District 5. Working families are being squeezed by housing costs, rising utility bills and everyday expenses that keep climbing. Homelessness is straining our neighborhoods because the county lacks enough shelter, mental health treatment and substance abuse recovery capacity to meet demand. And federal cuts to programs like Medi-Cal, CalFresh and veterans’ benefits threaten to blow holes in the county budget and shift new costs onto the families least able to absorb them.

These issues are connected. You cannot solve homelessness without building more housing. You cannot keep families stable if federal safety-net programs disappear. You cannot attract good employers if workers cannot afford to live here. I will treat these as the interconnected crises they are, not as separate line items.

A: On homelessness, we need more beds, more treatment and more accountability. The county must expand shelter capacity and invest in mental health and substance abuse treatment so people in crisis have a real path to stability. Housing First works, but only when paired with wraparound services. At the same time, I will enforce existing laws and hold repeat offenders accountable. Compassion and accountability are not in conflict. 

On housing, the county’s biggest tool is land use authority in unincorporated areas. I will push to cut permitting timelines, eliminate redundant reviews and align infrastructure investment with areas designated for growth. Workforce housing near jobs and transit should be the priority. Builders should not face years of delays and millions in carrying costs for projects consistent with existing plans. We also need to balance housing production with wildfire safety. We can build more homes responsibly without putting families in harm’s way.

A: North County needs better transit connections to jobs, schools and services. I will advocate for expanded SPRINTER and COASTER service, improved bus routes and safe biking and walking infrastructure connecting neighborhoods to transit hubs. I also recognize that most people still drive, and road conditions in parts of District 5 are unacceptable. I will push for county investment in road repair, particularly in unincorporated communities that have been neglected.

Infrastructure also means water storage, fire protection and power reliability. I will prioritize investments in water infrastructure for fire suppression, drought resilience and agricultural needs, and push for wildfire-hardened evacuation routes in fire-prone areas. Transportation and infrastructure projects should be built with project labor agreements and local hire provisions so the construction work itself creates good, middle-class jobs for families in our region.

A: Public safety starts with giving law enforcement the resources they need while investing in the upstream solutions that prevent crime in the first place. I will support fully funding the Sheriff’s Department and ensuring adequate staffing, particularly in unincorporated areas with long response times. I will also push for expanded mental health crisis teams so that behavioral health emergencies are handled by trained professionals, freeing up sworn officers for law enforcement. Fentanyl is devastating families across our county. I will support county investment in drug interdiction, treatment capacity and public education.

On gun violence, I will champion full funding of gun violence restraining order programs and safe storage education, which are proven to reduce gun deaths, particularly suicides, which account for the majority of gun fatalities in our county. Prevention is not soft on crime. It is smart on crime. I want fewer victims, fewer funerals, and a county that addresses root causes rather than just reacting after the damage is done.

A: The county has taken steps in the right direction, but implementation needs to accelerate, and climate policy must be paired with economic opportunity. Wildfire resilience is the most urgent climate priority for District 5. I will invest in vegetation management, defensible space enforcement, evacuation route improvements and fire protection infrastructure in unincorporated communities. On emissions, I support expanding renewable energy, building electrification on realistic timelines, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure at county facilities and transit stations.

Where I would do things differently is on workforce standards. Every clean energy project funded with public dollars should include project labor agreements, local hire, and apprenticeship requirements so the transition builds middle-class careers, not just permits.

I also believe the county should take a more active role in protecting our coastline through beach restoration, water quality improvements and coastal resilience investments. Climate policy should not be an abstract exercise. It should make communities safer, create good jobs, and protect the places people love.

A: Behavioral health capacity is the single biggest gap. North County does not have enough mental health crisis beds, substance abuse treatment slots or outpatient services to meet demand. That gap drives homelessness, emergency room overcrowding and public safety challenges.

I would prioritize expanding community-based behavioral health infrastructure and mobile crisis teams so that when someone is ready for treatment, a bed is available. I would also prioritize protecting county health and human services from federal funding cuts. Programs like Medi-Cal, CalFresh and in-home supportive services serve hundreds of thousands of San Diegans. The county needs to aggressively lobby to protect that funding and have contingency plans if it is reduced. Third, I would invest in preventive care and maternal and child health programs in underserved communities. It is far cheaper to keep people healthy than to treat crises. Every dollar spent on prevention saves multiple dollars downstream.

A: Cut: The county should conduct a comprehensive review of outside contracting to identify services that can be performed more efficiently in-house or consolidated across departments. Too often, contracting costs balloon with change orders, RFP overhead and duplicative management layers. A rigorous cost-accounting analysis comparing in-house delivery to contracted services would identify real savings without cutting services residents depend on.

New expense: The county needs to invest in expanding behavioral health treatment capacity in North County. We do not have enough crisis beds, residential treatment slots or outpatient mental health providers to serve the population. This is not optional spending. The absence of treatment infrastructure drives emergency room costs, homelessness and public safety challenges that cost the county far more than the upfront investment. Building this capacity now saves money and saves lives.

A: I have reviewed the charter reforms being proposed, and I do not find any of them to be unreasonable. That said, these are changes to the foundational governing document of the county, and they are being handled the right way: by putting them before the voters.The voters approved the current term limits, and any modification should go back to the voters. They will have the opportunity to weigh in, and I respect their judgment.

On the broader question of board powers, I believe the Board of Supervisors should have the tools it needs to govern effectively and deliver services. Whether specific proposals strengthen or weaken governance is a fair debate, and voters should have the final word. I am specifically enthusiastic about the creation of a County Ethics Commission and the other transparency measures.

A: The impact of federal funding cuts on county services. Washington is pulling back support for programs that hundreds of thousands of San Diegans rely on, and the county budget is not prepared for the fallout. Medi-Cal, CalFresh, veterans’ benefits, housing assistance and public health funding are all at risk. When federal dollars disappear, the costs do not disappear with them. They shift to the county, to local hospitals, to nonprofits, and ultimately to families.

The Board of Supervisors needs to be actively lobbying to protect this funding, developing contingency plans for reductions and making sure residents who are eligible for benefits are actually enrolled and receiving them. Right now, too many families qualify for assistance they are not getting, simply because they do not know it exists or cannot navigate the process. The county should be connecting people to benefits proactively, not waiting for a crisis.

A: I am the only candidate in this race who combines private-sector experience, federal policy expertise and deep community roots. As a commercial property manager, I understand the realities of building housing, managing costs and navigating regulation. As deputy chief of staff for Congressman Mike Levin since 2023 and working in his office since 2018, I have spent years delivering results for North County families, helping thousands of constituents navigate federal agencies and access the services they need. As former chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, I have built coalitions that bring people together across political lines. My opponents are two Republican mayors who will continue the same approach that has left District 5 with rising costs, insufficient housing and inadequate mental health and homelessness services. I offer a different vision: affordability, accountability and opportunity for every family in North County. I was born and raised in Oceanside. I still live in the Eastside neighborhood. This is my home, and I am running because the families who live here deserve a supervisor who will fight for them every single day.

A: 

1. Implementation of a Housing First policy in the county of San Diego. Not only for our  unhoused community, but for families who are struggling to pay their rent and are at risk of  becoming unhoused. 
2. Free public transportation for those 24 years old and younger. Local government should be finding ways to support young adults in getting to work and school, without them having to worry about the cost of maintaining a vehicle (e.g., car payment, insurance, gas). Increased utilization of public transportation is beneficial for the environment and reduces wear and tear on the roads, by reducing the number of cars on the road. 
3. Immigration policies that are founded in dignity and respect for all. Right now, immigration enforcement is based on racial profiling and white supremacy, with a majority of detained people having never committed a crime. I feel less safe with a masked gang kidnapping people than with my immigrant neighbors. 

A: As a public health professional, I believe in a Housing First policy to address all other social and behavioral determinants of health. Before we can ask someone to make positive changes to their lives (e.g., employment, mental health services, sobriety), they must have somewhere safe to sleep at night. And for children to go to school and learn and participate, they must be well rested and not carry stress from being unhoused.

Currently, San Diego’s approach to increasing housing opportunities is to increase urban sprawl by raising the natural environment and constructing single family homes for extremely high prices. This does not address the housing affordability issue and only slightly increases the  number of available houses. However, the cost of these new single-family homes remains unattainable to most. In addition, I commit to block corporations like Airbnb and BlackRock from buying homes in our neighborhoods to drive up housing prices and increase gentrification. 

I propose increasing the availability of public housing in San Diego, where families and  individuals only pay within 25%-30% of their income to live in a clean, safe home. The purpose of public housing is not profit but rather to support community members, allowing them to spend their income on other necessities of daily living such as food and medicine. 

A: The county of San Diego needs to prioritize public transportation, to support local residents and mitigate climate change. I propose making public transportation free for those 24 years and younger, to support our young people in getting to work and school and reducing car dependence. While young people are building their lives, they should not have to worry about car payments, insurance and rising gas prices. In addition, we need to expand public transportation services, including extending hours of operation. For example, some classes at Cal State San Marcos end past 10 p.m. and train services end before 9 p.m.. Since Cal State San Marcos is a commuter school, this leaves very few options for students to get to and from campus. Additionally, those individuals that work past 9 p.m. are also limited in their transportation options and are forced to spend their income on car payments, Uber, etc. 

For many countries around the world, governments realize it is their duty to provide quality transportation options to its constituents. And their public transportation enables individuals to get to different areas for minimal cost. San Diego deserves quality transportation at a minimal cost to its constituents. 

A: As a public health professional, I look at crime and public safety through a social and  behavioral health determinant lens. Spending billions of dollars on law enforcement and  detention does not help break cycles of incarceration or promote societal changes. We must address the factors leading to crime and incarceration. For example, it is incredible what affordable housing, food and medical services can do for a person’s mental health. When community members are deprived of these necessities of daily living, they enter cycles of crime and incarceration to sustain themselves. I believe in promoting job and trade training for our young adults so they can prepare to enter the workforce. I believe in fully funding schools, after school programs and libraries so our youth are engaged with academics and the arts instead of engaging in risky behaviors. We must address these determinants of health if we want to end cycles of incarceration, instead of using the current method of detainment and violence at the hands of law enforcement.

A: To address climate change in San Diego, I would focus on: 

• Climate-focused housing development, staying away from increasing urban sprawl and  destruction of the natural environment. 
•  Increased usage of public transportation by increasing hours of operation and making public transportation free for those 24 years and younger. Public transportation  reduces the number of cars on the road and emissions in our environment.  
• Water conservancy across San Diego County. Our precious water supply should not be used for novel reasons (such as watering massive lawns or golf courses), but rather ensuring all people have access to clean drinking water and animal life are able to thrive alongside their human neighbors. 

A: I would prioritize CalFresh (and similar food assistance programs) and housing assistance. As mentioned before, it is incredible what can change a person’s mental health when they have stable housing and food security. The role of local government is to make sure that every person in the county is living at a standard quality of life. I work with mutual aid groups across North County, and it is incredible to see the high need for healthy foods for families that are simply trying to survive. The very least our local governments can do is focus on providing food to our most vulnerable communities. 

A: I would reduce the budget of the Sheriff’s Department and detention services in favor of  expanding affordable public housing. As a public health professional, I believe in addressing social and behavioral determinants of health before it evolves into scenarios where law enforcement is needed. One new expense that is necessary is fully funding our schools, after school programs and adequately compensating our teachers. Teachers hold the most important jobs in our society, are required to hold degrees and often pay for classroom supplies out of their own pocket. Teachers train our youth to become productive members of society, and it is imperative that our youth are properly educated before leaving high school. More education means less incarceration. 

A: I am not in favor of extending term limits. I believe the purpose of elected positions is to get into office, make the most beneficial impact possible and then make way for fresh ideas and fresh input from community members. Politics should not be made into careers, rather it should encourage community members to engage in local politics and become leaders. I do believe that the County Board of Supervisors should prioritize accountability and oversight and be involved in the hiring and management of different department leaders.

A: The most overlooked and underaddressed issue in the county is housing affordability. Instead of building acres of expensive single-family homes, we need to make sure that our vulnerable community members are sheltered from the heat and the cold. Individuals and families who pay between 25%-30% of their income can afford other necessities of life including healthy, fresh food and preventative medicine. It is disgraceful that our elders, disabled persons and families are being forced to choose between housing and food or housing and their medicine, or being shoved into homelessness. 

A: I deserve constituents’ support because I believe all residents of North San Diego County deserve a standard quality of life, regardless of gender and sexual identity, immigration status and socioeconomic status. I believe that workers and unions make the world turn yet are fighting to secure a decent life for themselves and their family and I want to advocate for these benefits for the working class. I am running as an independent candidate because I want to focus on caring for our vulnerable communities and working to make sure all people achieve a standard quality of life. And I am running independent because I believe the binary political system has taken the focus off the basic needs of our constituents and promotes capitalism and destruction of the natural world. 

My entire career has been spent taking care of our most vulnerable communities, from children living in public housing in East Harlem, New York, to our native youth on San Diego reservations. In San Diego, families and individuals are suffering, our children are suffering and it’s time to stop blaming opposing political parties and work together in community to address our societal issues.

The other candidates in the race are quick to blame each other for the shortfalls of the local government; however, it is only through the understanding that we are all in this together that we will be able to make sure everyone has shelter, food and medicine.