2020 election: Q&A with Nora Vargas, candidate for San Diego County Supervisor District 1

Oct. 16, 2020 6:42 PM PT

The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board recently emailed a series of questions to Nora Vargas, a Democrat who is running for San Diego County Board of Supervisors District 1 against state Sen. Ben Hueso, also a Democrat. Here are the questions and her responses.

Evaluate the county’s response to the pandemic and say how you would have led differently.

Mitigating the impacts of the pandemic and economic recovery are my top priority. Since launching my campaign for the board of supervisors, I’ve emphasized the importance of healthier and stronger communities and that message is truer now than ever.

While our public health officials have done a good job trying to keep the board and residents updated, a divisive board, and supervisors providing misinformation to our communities, only creates confusion. Healthcare decisions should not be politicized and should be made based on science and data. I would have ensured we acted as one voice for this county. When you lead under crisis, interests need to be put aside, and focus should be on the county as a whole.

In regard to CARES Act funding disbursement, I would have pushed for funding to be disbursed to cities based on need not population, and ensured this funding served all segments of our community. The county could have also done better by its essential workers and provided personal protective equipment (PPE), hazard pay and benefits early on. From day one, I’ve been a strong advocate for more PPE, hazard pay and expansion of testing and contact tracing. In the early stages of the pandemic, the county struggled with providing in-language resources. I created Conexiones, an online bilingual platform for this purpose, and I would have recommended an early investment in a promotora/navigator model program to provide resources to our communities and help guide our small businesses through the process of applying for relief assistance.

How, specifically, will you address the high cost of housing in San Diego County?

California is experiencing a housing crisis. There is a lack of supply of all types of new homes to meet growing demand. A lack of supply of both rental and ownership units contribute greatly to the availability of naturally occurring affordable housing.

As a county, it is our responsibility to preserve existing affordable homes, protect the families in them and produce more housing at all income levels to address issues of affordability. The lack of affordable housing impacts young people, working families, veterans and seniors on fixed income.

We have an opportunity for implementing a strategic approach to increase the supply of affordable and workforce housing and we can start by building near transit corridors and job centers. We need to be true partners with our surrounding cities and identify opportunities that encourage and facilitate the development of more housing, from identifying land to facilitating to streamlining the project approval process.

Lastly, I will be a strong advocate at the federal level to make sure we identify funding for first-time homebuyer programs and that we partner with our local cities in this effort. It is one of my priorities that we help people who are renters transition to become homeowners and achieve that part of the American dream.

The county supervisors recently rescinded their 2018 Climate Action Plan and intend to replace it with a new one. What would you do to ensure it is legal, realistic and effective?

I am committed to championing a Climate Action Plan while prioritizing the systemic racial inequities impacting our communities. CAPs are crucial for government’s work towards a plan to move to clean energy, and decarbonization is key to prevent future natural disasters. Our county board of supervisors has failed to deliver a plan to meet our strong state climate goals, which is why the county’s plan has lost in court battles. As supervisor, I will ensure that any plan approved will meet the needs to address the climate goals.

In order for any CAP to be truly effective, it has to be part of the fabric of our county and our communities. We have big issues to address, especially around environmental injustices that have impacted District 1 communities for decades. This has resulted in communities such as Imperial Beach and Coronado being affected by sewage-contaminated water, and Barrio Logan and National City have children diagnosed with severe asthma in the emergency room above the county average. As supervisor, I will push for health and environmental justice elements to be added to our general plan to further the goals of environmental justice in our communities that have been negatively impacted by environmental degradation.

Lastly, we have an opportunity at the county for various departments to help uplift environmental justice principles, and I am committed to creating policy and guidance for our departments to help us meet our climate goals.

Would you support the Sheriff’s Department outsourcing jail medical and mental health services? Why or why not?

I do not support the privatization of medical and behavioral health services in the county’s detention facilities. Currently, San Diego County jails have the highest inmate death rate among large counties in the state. I strongly believe that outsourcing these critical jobs not only threatens hundreds of county nurses and social workers with layoffs, but it’s putting lives, safety, transparency and accountability at risk.

We need to stop outsourcing, especially to contractors who don’t have the skills, institutional knowledge or experience. If what we are trying to address is how we improve health care outcomes in our county jails, and how we do it in a cost-effective manner, I believe the county has highly trained health care professionals that can do the job.

Counties around the country have experienced numerous lawsuits due to outsourcing to private companies that lack accountability. We can’t afford lawsuits at a time when our county needs to focus on economic recovery and providing resources to help our communities and our small businesses recover and thrive.

The county’s new budget reserve is less than the equivalent of two months of operations. How much of a priority is restoring that reserve and when would you look to do that?

As a candidate with real experience managing budgets, I understand that having a sound reserve is key for our county government. I know the impact of this pandemic will result in budget shortfalls, but I also know that there are opportunities to fill these shortfalls with funding that can come from Proposition 15. With Proposition 15 we have an opportunity to close an unfair tax loophole that could provide the boost our local economies need as we prioritize economic recovery for our county.

For far too long large commercial and industrial property owners have avoided paying their fair share in taxes, leaving our struggling residents and small business owners to pay more for local schools, community colleges and essential government services.

I strongly believe Proposition 15 is one of several opportunities that can help restore our reserve and help increase funding for county health care services, social services to assist our unsheltered communities, senior assistance programs, child nutrition, foster care, park and recreation programs, and equipment for our first responders to effectively protect human life and limit damage from wildfires and natural disasters.

Read our Q&A with the other candidate in this race below: