Increase Community Engagement and Transparency

When was the last time you personally heard from your city councilor? Instead of waiting for people to comment at city council meetings, our city council needs to directly engage with the community, request feedback through alternative forums (online polls, forums, text messages, phone calls), and actively seek input.

If elected, I commit to holding quarterly public community meetings where residents are welcome to stop by, share their thoughts, and provide feedback on what they would like to see from the city. Whether it’s as common as a pothole on your street or a problematic storm drain, or as massive as climate change and what that means for our community, I want to hear your thoughts.

I will also work hard to improve the quality of communications from the city. Instead of sending an email about a city council meeting that requires multiple clicks and a download to get to the agenda, the city needs to better communicate the issues up for consideration. This could be as simple as providing a quick summary of each agenda item with a direct link to submit a comment. City council should arrange to provide this information to the Solana Beach Sun and other print media, so we could better reach all of our residents, especially those who aren’t online. Additionally, I would ensure that communications are provided in both English and Spanish to ensure we serve all of our residents.

I will also strive to ensure that no major decisions are made without sufficient community input and debate. While city council has held workshops to discuss many non-controversial topics such as the tot-lot improvements or a pocket park on Glenmont, in 2021 city council passed a major change to the municipal code regarding subdivisions of lots, with no community engagement and zero workshops. I won’t shy away from discussing issues, no matter how difficult or complex. On the contrary, it’s often the complex topics that deserve the most public engagement.