On Feb. 8, the second candidacy forum for Stockton City Council Districts 4 and 6 was held at the Dawn Mabalon Forum at Delta College. The primary election will take place on March 5.
STOCKTON CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 4
The event’s first half started with District 4 candidates: Jerome Clay, Mario Enriquez, Henry Rodriguez III, Gina Valdez-Bracamonte and Ray Zulueta.
District 4 covers the Louis Park area, Pacific Avenue and the Brookside area. Currently, the seat for District 4 belongs to Susan Lenz, where she has served for two terms.
Most of the candidates are newcomers when it comes to Stockton politics. Clay is an employment lawyer and owns a law business, ClayLaw, located by the Sherwood Mall.
Valdez-Bracamonte owns a nonprofit organization, Bread of Life, which provides food to underprivileged families in the San Joaquin Valley.
Another nonprofit founder, Rodriguez, started the Sutter House of Hope and Drugless Society, which provides services to people who need trauma and addiction support. Navigating people on a positive path.
Ray Zulueta is currently the Area 4 representative on the Stockton Unified Board of Trustees. Working with SUSD, he wants to give more back to the community as city council member.
Mario Enriquez is the Director of the Center for Identity and Inclusion at the University of Pacific (UOP). He was also picked as a leader of the Victory Institute’s Director of Constituent Engagement in Washington D.C.
Panelist Aaron Leathley from the Stockton Record asked the candidates what they saw as the biggest challenge in their district and how they would make positive changes.
“District 4 is very diverse,” said Rodriguez. “We have Louis Park, Oak Park, Townhomes, and then we have Brookside which is a whole different community. I want to break that gap between those different communities and make us flow together. No one is getting the same treatment.”
“The biggest issue is homelessness,” said Clay. “Let’s give a solution to it. I was helping a homeless individual who had a drug problem and the judge told me, ‘Once they start using, in their brains it releases dopamine and it takes 10 years to be clean.’ If you don’t give services to the root cause and why they are using it’ll never solve homelessness.”
“I’ve been knocking on doors since July and asked the constituents what their concerns are,” said Valdez-Bracamonte. “It’s crime. People are afraid to take their children to the park. They’re afraid to go to the ATMs. The solution to that is to hire more law enforcement officers.”
“Our infrastructure is particularly tied to speeding and public safety,” said Enriquez. “Public safety concerns are our roads and potholes. The lack of wide areas during the nighttime. But speeding is a huge issue on Pershing and Dave Brubeck next to UOP campus.”
“Our public safety, our waterways and our public infrastructure affects our citizens and is the greatest issue in our district,” said Zulueta. “Especially our unhoused transients in our district. All these issues make our community feel unsafe.”
Panelist Layla Alaswad, a member from the Delta Politics and Law Club asked about how they would build consensus and work with other council members.
“I, not only see myself working with other council members, but other members of the community as an opportunity for us to essentially address all the great ideas we have for the area…,” said Zulueta. “Because we spend so much time fighting each other and forget that we all want the same thing… What’s best for Stockton.”
“I serve on many different boards and many different communities,” said Rodriguez. “It’s completely diverse, from all different backgrounds. I don’t marry the vote, I back up with facts… The way I can work with other council members is bringing diversity as well. It doesn’t take 10 years for an addict to recover… It takes a little bit of time, a little bit of love, and a little bit of care. Just like I want to give to the city of Stockton and just what I want to give to District 4.”
“Working with the sheriffs,” said Clay. “We came up with plans on how individuals need medical treatment and how we can bring medications to them. That’s what’s facing us with this homelessness and they have no way of getting treatment. Working with the sheriff we came up with new policies.”
“Building relationships is how you build consensus,” said Valdez-Bracamonte. “When I started Bread of Life, I went and met every county supervisor and city council members, at that time, and I built relationships. I was able to bring funds into my non-profit organization from the county and the city. And that’s how you do it.”
“I was part of a leadership program in this country that specifically focuses on consensus building,” said Enriquez. “And I have taken many years of training and tools that only a select few gain. There’s eight actual tools that they teach when it comes to consensus building… Here in the city of Stockton, I want to be a public servant, where my track records does show that, but actual models their governance and their respect.”
STOCKTON CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 6
The last half of the event featured candidates for the District 6 seat, which covers part of the Weston Ranch, Charter Way, the Metropolitan Stockton airport area and a small part of French Camp.
Only four candidates made an appearance: Jason Lee, Zoyla Moreno, incumbent Kimberly Warmsley and Ralph White. Ronnie Murray Sr. and Satnam Singh did not participate in the forum event.
Tensions between Lee and White have been high on social media, with the two candidates repeatedly trading barbs in the leadup to the election.
On Jan. 29, Lee made a mini-documentary about White. It claimed White demonstrated a lack of leadership as a landlord, allowing South Stockton renters to live in filth and squalor. White responds by posting Lee’s appearance on the reality TV show, “Love and Hip Hop” from 2015 to 2019.
Kimberly Warmsley is currently Stockton’s vice mayor and District 6 city council member and is running for her second term.
Zoyla Moreno has been a dedicated community member of the Weston Ranch area, serving as the neighborhood watchman and activist. She says that she is representing the “unheard and last district” of Stockton.
Panelist Hannah Workman from the Stockton Record asks what they saw as the biggest challenge in their district and how they would make positive changes.
“I developed on Nextdoor a poll for the community and I created the categories for the community to respond,” said Moreno. “The number one issue is crime, public safety and homelessness. I have built a positive relationship with the police.”
“The entire part of South Stockton has been under-invested in for decades,” said Lee. “One of the things I have committed is to give in my entire salary for the four years that I am here, is to develop into the Southside Athletic Commission, that’s just one contribution I plan to do. It’s all about providing service.”
“I have invested more money than anybody, onto South Stockton,” said White. “I know South Stockton better than anybody. I have represented South Stockton for 16 in a half years on this council. Since I left as council in 1996 South Stockton has gone straight to hell.”
“It’s very easy to identify the issues in South Stockton and we know poverty is rapid…,” said Warmsley. “I am proud to say that I am working on an intergovernmental committee so that we have our local electants, our state electants, our federal electants at the table, coming together and having the conversation on how we can invest back into our community.”
The next question was asked by Ronda Sanders, a member of the League of Women Voters of San Joaquin County, how would you communicate and involve citizens?
“We need to put it back the way it was,” said White. “You come to the council and you spoke in the beginning of the council on things that were important, for five minutes… We need to open it back up to the people, this government belongs to you. They act like the government belongs to them and the city belongs to them. And not to you, this is your city. We the people, of the people, by the people, and for the people. That’s the way it should be!”
“A lot of people here don’t know the difference between a city council member and a supervisor,” said Warmsley. “And I think that civic engagement is critical. Secondly, let’s talk about misinformation and disinformation, let’s talk about how a community so vulnerable such as South Stockton is currently divided because of that.”
“I frequently hold community engagement in Weston Ranch,” said Moreno. “I’ve been hosting the ranch community meetings with the police for the past 5 years. Weston Ranch Community Association lost its non-profit establishment under the present vice mayor.”
“It needs to start with rebuilding trust,” said Lee. “The community in South Stockton has no trust in the government. I think there needs to be a bridge built between Weston Ranch and Southeast Stockton…”
The event was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of San Joaquin County, Delta College, the Business Council of San Joaquin County, the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce, CSU Stanislaus (Stockton campus), the African American Chamber of Commerce, San Joaquin County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Central Valley Asian American Chamber of Commerce, NAACP and the Stockton Record.
PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT
