Interviews by Susana Alvarez, Aron Garst, Samantha Hamilton, Nick Kazden, Matthew Pera, and Ardy Raghian
CRAIG BUSH
Bush is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s of science in conservation and resource use. He is an avid environmentalist who has studied urban site engineering and the dynamics of exploited animal populations.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“My campaign addresses global warming, which is your future. That was my main purpose for running — for the environment of the future. The water system I proposed has a lot of job opportunities for students in the science community. I am also against the new spy agency [the Rental Inspection Program] that was formed by the city with the help of UCSC and a $30,000 grant to spy on students living off campus. I guess [the university] was concerned about dwindling numbers of people living up there in the dorms, so they set forth on this mission to blow the whistle on people letting other people sleep on couches and things like that — housing situations that aren’t appropriate. They formulated this spy agency and they pay the workers $80,000 a year, more than teachers, to spy on people. I would encourage a program that would offer off-campus housing to students, provide harbor for them and afford them cheaper costs of living because they can hardly afford the cost of tuition in the first place.”
What motivates you?
“What got me started in this was the proposed desalination plan and its effect on global warming. I saw that desal required 12 times the energy of a conventional water filtration system. The water system I want to introduce uses less energy than a conventional water filtration system. It provides a positive impact on the environment and brings back the salmon.”
What frustrates you?
“I was seeing that the big fracking corporations were pushing this desalination system on a coastal community that was in a position to export water. I had to stand up against that.”
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“I would definitely try to convince the council to explore the water strategy I’m proposing. I would explore a partnership with the state and federal governments to look for grants available for this technology. We would end with a water system that’s in balance with nature, that’s sustainable, that will lower our water bills and allow for the return of the salmon. I would improve the budget for the cultural arts community. I would also work for policies that improved our community with greater safety against gun violence.”
CYNTHIA CHASE
Chase earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2001 from UCSC. She then received her master’s degree in social work from San Jose State in 2005. Chase is the director of GEMMA, a nonprofit supporting re-entry for incarcerated women in Santa Cruz County. She also teaches at the School of Social Work at both San Jose State and CSU Monterey Bay.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“My UCSC education and the internships and field studies I had are why I’m still here and are why I got engaged and care about the community. I cared about living here, but it’s not the same experience as being able to network with our community. That’s a really integral part, of having not just students coming in to get an education, not just staying on the hill, but connecting with students through these opportunities to engage them with the community — what they’re learning is going to make our community better. Hopefully people will stay here, get jobs here and continue those connections after graduation. They will bring their creativity and innovation, which is really rich to the city and will continue to help it grow and thrive. I want to create very specific structured ways for students to do those things — volunteer, intern [and do] field studies.”
What motivates you?
“I feel like I’ve gotten some tremendous opportunities and [have] been able to work with some really amazing people not just with the university but a lot of folks connected to the university who have really dedicated their career and lives to making a social impact. So helping to develop this community to what it is now, the things that work really well about it and also to help move forward some things that I think are challenges we have in terms of opportunities to get jobs or opportunities for affordable housing, for issues of public safety where we really struggle. I’m motivated to build on what works really well in our very unique community and also use some of that momentum that exists now, but also to engage the rest of the community to help us look at our vision for the future, and how we are going to move forward.”
What frustrates you?
“I couldn’t be working in the jails and bureaucracies if I couldn’t deal with frustration. I have a pretty high tolerance for frustration, it frustrates me when people are shortsighted about how to work together, or when people get so dug into their perspectives that they can’t be open to anything else. They’re not hearing any other perspective and no progress can happen when that happens, and that frustrates me because we all have opinions and our community is full of really passionate people. We definitely don’t all agree on what we’re passionate about. But we need to stay open to having those dialogues and if we’re not open to that we are at a standstill and nothing can happen.”
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“I’m going to do my best to bring a balanced perspective. One of the things that I credit to my life perspective is having worked as a probation officer. I used to write sentencing reports and I had to talk to victims and the perpetrators of crime. I had to come up with recommendations that I thought were going to make victims whole and address the harms that were caused to them. I learned that everything is a lot more complex than we give it credit for. People can expect that I will bring that perspective to any challenge that comes in front of the City Council. I’m going to be very inclusive and I’ll want to hear opinions and concerns. If elected, I’m a representative for the community so I need to hear what people love or what they think is not being addressed. I want to find ways that we can get out in the community and talk to people who don’t have the time to come down to city hall. I’ll work to get students off the hill and involved.”
GARY KNUTSON
Knuston has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an accounting emphasis from Cal Poly Pomona, where he continues to take classes every year. He was elected County Auditor Controller for both Los Angeles and Santa Cruz. In 2006 he was interim director of finance for Santa Cruz.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“I look at the university as an as- set. It attracts very bright people. The only difficult thing for a lot of our students is that they will most likely migrate to other areas to seek mindful employment. Santa Cruz needs to work on retaining some of its information technology programs. We’ve lost a number of businesses in terms of transferring staff to Silicon Valley.”
What motivates you?
“The number one important thing is to improve our water supply. In Santa Cruz we have dismantled the water reservoir up here on Cardiff … the rate structure should be modeled in a way to encourage more conservation. I get an allotment of 10 units of water, but only use four units. If you think about that, it doesn’t really encourage conservation. If I wanted to use that other water, I could do it. The rate structure should be geared to reward people that go the extra distance. Not everyone has $10,000 to $20,000 for solar energy. The repayment on a solar energy project, to recapture your investment, is about nine years. Quite frankly, something like putting a local improvement bond out there could really reduce our carbon footprint in Santa Cruz County.”
What frustrates you?
“I’m not frustrated. I got into this campaign relying on my past performance and history. I’m not raising money. I have a network of friends that are working with me and I’m not frustrated or discouraged. I encourage more people to run for elected offices, and I think you’ll know your strategy, strengths and weaknesses … One of the important things is you need to know your audience, and if you don’t know your audience you can take a misstep and get into a little trouble.”
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“I have an expertise that most people don’t have — that is, the understanding of the ins and outs of city, county and state budget. I know how to accomplish things and provide transparency. I want transparency and I want to provide that. I would have an open door policy. I don’t care who you are if you want to come.”
RICHELLE NOROYAN
Noroyan grew up in Santa Cruz and currently works as the community relations representative at UCSC. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from CSU Fresno. She has also been employed at Apple and the Santa Cruz Operation. Noroyan is a former district director to California Assembly member Ira Ruskin, as well as a previous Chair and current member of the Santa Cruz Public Works and Transportation Commission.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“Part of my profession at UCSC is knowing how to engage people and reach out. There are several ways I’ll do that with the university through a lot of the organized student groups. I’ve done that before in the past as Chair of the Democratic party for the county, so it’s not something new to me to reach out to students. I also have two interns who I mentor on campus, so I hear from them what’s going on. There are a lot of ways that I’ll reach out to students and I know they’re an integral part of the community, so I want to do that. If anybody is looking for an internship, I definitely would like to work with a student who is interested in learning more about local and city government.”
What motivates you?
“I’ve lived in Santa Cruz almost all of my life. I grew up here. I love my hometown and I love being engaged in the community. I’ve been involved in politics almost my whole adult life, and I have a passion for this type of work. Nothing excites me more than getting a group of people into a room and doing something positive for the community. It is very exciting to me when I can be a part of implementing great change in my community.”
What frustrates you?
“The biggest challenge if I do win this seat will be dealing with the process. I like to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I’m not a huge process person, but I know that in order to accomplish things in this city I’ll have to walk through the process. I have to learn to take deep breaths and be patient. On a personal level, that will be my biggest challenge.
“On a macro level, it’s one of those double-edged swords. It’s a great thing that we have people who are engaged and passionate about their cities, but it also means that we take a lot of time to make decisions and that can be frustrating. I know it’s frustrating to other people as well because sometimes something that looks so obvious to fix might not be, because someone in the community comes forward and points out, ‘No, this is a complicated issue.’ Like I said, that goes back to just being patient, knowing there’s a process and sometimes not always honoring that process if it’s too much time.”
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“For me, I’m really a pragmatic person and so I want to deal with the nuts and bolts of running a city. While there are a lot of national and state issues I feel very strongly about, as a City Council member I really need to pay attention to how our city works in terms of the roads and traffic. Infrastructure is really important. We have a $100,000,000 infrastructure deficit in Santa Cruz and we need City Council members who will run the nuts and bolts of a city — and that includes the not-so-sexy stuff of roads, where we plant trees and all sorts of things that are not the romantic issues.”
LEONIE SHERMAN
A Santa Cruz local, Sherman has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. She has worked as a journalist and has taught self- defense for years. She developed and implemented programs for sixth to tenth grade P.E. classes.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“I’ve done a lot of work around protecting upper campus. The university’s Long Range Development Plan calls for building a couple of colleges up there all the way up to the three lower tanks, so that’s an issue that is really relevant to students. Every student I’ve spoken to speaks very highly of having that undeveloped area. I’m also very concerned about affordable housing in Santa Cruz, we’re really at a crisis point here. Talking about affordable housing and different options to make sure there is housing available, not just for students but also for the diverse economic base here in Santa Cruz, is another way I’ve connected with students.”
What motivates you?
“What I think motivated me to run for City Council was partly working with young people here in town. I’ve taught over 9,000 young people in the past seven years in Santa Cruz and I’ve watched them grow up. I teach them in sixth grade and then I teach them the next year in seventh grade, and I wonder what kind of town they are going to have when they grow up. I want to make sure the decisions we make now on City Council provide for an affordable, safe and sustainable place for them to call home.”
What frustrates you?
“In Santa Cruz there is a history of political insiders. I don’t think it’s unique to Santa Cruz, you’ll see this anywhere where there’s sort of a political machine that includes the business community and the media establishment. Often in other places, and in Santa Cruz as well I think that can affect the political process. But I’m really hopeful that here in Santa Cruz we still have democracy for the people and by the people, so it’s been really exciting to engage in this process.“
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“I’m going to work really hard to identify common goals that I share with other councilmembers and work with them toward achievable, measurable outcomes. I’ll work on forming alliances with the other councilmembers, because that’s the only way you get anything done on City Council. The most common answer I hear is that people are very concerned about our homeless population and our water situation. Those are the two issues I’d like to work on really closely for the four years I’d serve on City Council.”
DAVID TERRAZAS
Terrazas was first elected to City Council in November 2010. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Jose State and a master’s degree in business administration and a doctorate of law from Santa Clara University. He is also a member of the California Bar Association.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“Over the last three years, I’ve been working with UCSC to see how we can partner not only with university students, but university administrators to bring their work into town. I piloted a program where we looked at welcoming students through a promotional campaign downtown. If you look at downtown businesses, you’ll see stickers that say ‘We Speak Slug’ and it creates a more welcoming environment for students. I want to make sure that we work more collaboratively [with students]. I’ll be reaching out to the association of students and campus groups to see what opportunities there are, so that university students can be more engaged in our city and more involved in looking for solutions to issues that they feel haven’t been addressed. I look forward to hearing from them if there’s anything they feel the city needs to do a better job at to address student concerns in Santa Cruz.”
What motivates you?
“I’m motivated by making my community the best it can be. I like to work and partner with neighborhood groups so that we can invest in our town through not only volunteer efforts, but creative works to make our town beautiful. I’ve worked with families like the O’Neill family. They started the surf shop here in Santa Cruz in 1959 and if you go down the entrance of Cowell’s, you’ll see these historic photos. I worked with the state of California to have that designated as a historical point of interest and there is a bronze plaque to recognize them. For me, recognizing all of the important people that make our town such a special place is really a joy in terms of serving as a councilmember.”
What frustrates you?
“The frustration is sometimes it takes a lot longer to accomplish those goals. You really have to work hard and really be focused. I enjoy the work and I really appreciate when we can make those accomplishments, not only individually, but as a community.”
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“In the next four years, I’ve really been focused on a project where we do a parks master plan. The city has not done a full comprehensive look at our parks, beaches and open spaces in over 30 years. I’m looking to have an overview of all of our open spaces and beaches and neighborhood parks so we can identify what these opportunities are that we haven’t taken advantage of to improve the facilities. I want to make sure we’re investing in the spaces through better landscaping, better water features or playground equipment. Once that’s done we’re going to identify these opportunities to look for in the next 10 years to make truly lasting improvements for our community. Another project I’m interested in is setting up a fellowship program for recent graduates, motivated college students from both Cabrillo and UCSC and Santa Cruz high school students. They could work and partner in the city so they can learn about the city’s operations and actually participate in a project.”
BRUCE VAN ALLEN
Van Allen has been in Santa Cruz since 1970 and is a UCSC graduate with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He has been in Santa Cruz since 1970. He was a Santa Cruz City Council member and was Santa Cruz mayor from 1982-83. He currently works as a campaign manager and a software developer.
How does your campaign engage the UCSC population?
“Students are a really important part of Santa Cruz. When I was elect- ed before, I had 94 percent of the stu- dent vote. My volunteers have been circulating campus trying to reach out to students. What’s important to me is that people recognize how important it is to speak out and or- ganize — students have always been a vital part of that. I know people think students will only be a part of the community for four years or so but that still makes an impact. I’d like for people to recognize that. The youngest age of voters is one of the most important voting blocks, which is exciting. There was a real problem with turnout. The participation with young voters has seen a lot in Santa Cruz.”
What motivates you?
“I’m concerned with some big issues, like water. I’m part of an anti-desal committee that fights the creation of a desalination plan that the city has been pushing for. I’ve been part of a committee that’s been looking for alternative sources of energy. Water is very important to this city. Affordable housing, that’s really important too. Especially for students, they’ve seen a lot of issues. A lot of people lost their housing with the financial crisis, including here. With the high housing prices on campus, students find it favorable to live in the city. It’s a high priority for me. I’ve been working for years on restoring the San Lorenzo River downtown. There is the potential now to make the river the centerpiece rather than just the back alley.”
What frustrates you?
“The polarization. What I’ve learned in my experience is that the real art of politics is to work with people that don’t see the world the same way you do. To work across the differences is where the most constructive outcomes happen. There is a real destructive point of view in this city about homelessness and poverty — it’s the idea that people who are really poor don’t deserve the same rights or the same respect. It’s really unfortunate and I’d like to work on it.”
If elected, what can we expect to see from you in four years?
“I’m going to work hard for a secure water supply and make sure the river project moves forward. I also want to work toward a better relationship between the city and university. They are both big institutions with different missions, but I can see them working together. A lot of good can come from that.”
