Savvy UCSC students keep candidates on their toes

<www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2002/November/01/local/stories/10local.htm>

November 1, 2002
By DAN WHITE
Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ - Politically savvy UC Santa Cruz students played
hardball with City Council candidates late Wednesday at the final
forum before the election.
The students did their homework, digging deep into the candidates’
platforms, then turned up the heat by having the council hopefuls
question their opponents.
The forum aired live on KZSC, UCSC’s on-campus radio station. Each
of the 12 candidates were present except Jeromy McMillan.
The evening’s moderator, UCSC student and KZSC host Timothy
Jordan, put candidate Phil Baer on the spot about his proposed
solutions to drug dealing and blight in the Beach Flats neighborhood
while politely implying Baer’s ideas sounded simplistic.
Jordan told Baer he “speaks eloquently” about the problems, “but how
would changing street names, painting new murals and (hiring)
security guards rid the streets of heroin?”
Baer said if he wasn’t bringing up Beach Flats problems, no one
would. He said, “I apologize if I failed to present a complete solution.”
Then he proposed one: kicking out “the progressives who took over
this town” and replacing them “with a council that is not clearly so
pro-drug.”
Baer took a dig at former four-term Councilman Mike Rotkin,
considered a frontrunner. Baer said he and Rotkin both come from a
1960s mentality of “empowerment, populism and egalitarianism, so
how do you couple that with the fact that you are now as
entrenched as Queen Victoria?”
The zinger prompted audience snickers but Rotkin did not crack a
smile.
“I’m not self-appointed or (selected) by birth,” he said, adding the
fact he’s been a top vote-getter in past elections means he
represents something people value.
“People vote for who they want to vote for, and they voted for me
four times,” Rotkin said. “You’ve run for office before on a single-issue
platform. People don’t want a musician with one single note to play.”
Later, incumbent Tim Fitzmaurice and former Councilwoman Cynthia
Mathews also took shots at Baer because he suggested Rotkin’s and
Fitzmaurice’s status as UCSC lecturers, and the fact Mathews’
husband is on the UCSC faculty, will make them beholden to the
campus and unlikely “to lead a rent strike.”
Fitzmaurice responded by saying he and Rotkin were both out on
strike just two weeks ago because of labor issues on campus, and
Mathews said it is absurd to make an issue of her husband’s job at
UCSC.
“This is the 21st century,” she said, emphasizing she should be judged
on her record. She noted her efforts helping the city to acquire
greenbelt properties and her support of affordable housing.
Recent UC Santa Cruz graduate Alec Stefansky helped prepare
questions tailored to specific candidates. Student Andrea Davis also
helped organize the event.
“A lot of times (at forums,) you hear softball questions not tailored to
them,” Stefansky said. “With the short time we had, we needed to
have direct questions and to get some clear answers out of
politicians, which isn’t easy to do.”
Fitzmaurice said the format “did sort of raise the heat every once in a
while but things do get a little negative toward the end (of the
campaign).
After being asked about wanting to widen Highway 1, candidate
Karen Woblesky, whose campaign emphasizes the need for a more
representative City Council, said Highway 1 is an “aging and
substandard road” and that traffic gridlock, and speeders being
diverted into neighborhoods, is not acceptable.
The students asked Steve Argue, the only candidate who backs rent
control in the city, to respond to critics who say rent control might
stifle low-income housing construction. Argue said council members,
whom he labels pseudo-progressives, stifle this housing, and city
zoning makes the situation worse by disallowing high-density
development.
He said it’s not right that landlords here “can raise the rent by $200
and kick you out in the street.”
Candidate Aldo Giacchino, whose campaign emphasizes management
and business savvy, said to Fitzmaurice, “You said you helped
(produce) a balanced budget yet the general fund has a deficit of
$860,000.” He was referring to the fund imbalance at the time when
the council approved the 2002-03 budget in July.
Fitzmaurice said the council made “stringent” cuts when it slashed $2
million this year, and faces “even more drastic cuts” next year.” He
said drawing down the deficit also forced the city to dip into its
reserve, and that the deficit is currently about $400,000.
Thomas Leavitt asked Fitzmaurice how he reconciled being a
progressive and wanting to make slight cuts to public safety and
much larger cuts to other areas, including social services, if the utility
tax is repealed.
Fitzmaurice said the cuts Leavitt mentioned were part of a city
manager’s report, and that the full council would have to prioritize
cuts if the utility tax is revoked. He said that police and fire were the
two biggest users of the tax-supported budget and that cutting the
fire department would be unwise.
“It hasn’t grown in 12 years,” he said.
Connie Thomasser asked Rotkin what kind of businesses he’d want to
attract, and how he would do that in light of empty spaces
downtown. She mentioned Rotkin’s opposition three years ago to
Borders Books opening downtown.
Rotkin spoke of a balance between large and small businesses,
environmentally sound industry and the need to go out and recruit
such companies.
The students asked Greg Lopez, who emphasized the need to put
more housing at UCSC, how this could be accomplished without
affecting Westside traffic. Lopez mentioned the need for “more
underground and inconspicuous” construction with more on-site
parking.
The students wanted to know how Leavitt could rectify his desire for
more low-income housing with opposition to large buildings downtown.
Leavitt said he opposes multi-story structures on Pacific Avenue but
supports high-density housing along Front and River Streets, also
supported by Rotkin.
Rotkin got the most airtime because so many other candidates singled
him out.
He said later he was tempted to ask a question to candidate Steve
Argue, but he didn’t do it.
“Why give him air time?” Rotkin said.
Candidates tailored some responses to UCSC students.
Woblesky mentioned she was a re-entry student there who graduated
in 1994. Thomasser spoke of “helping to vote in your slug mascot in
the early 1980s.” Rotkin and Argue mentioned their endorsement from
the Santa Cruz Coalition to Free Mumia Abdul-Jamal and all Political
Prisoners.
David Eselius made a pitch to students when he said they too would
feel the effects of “a forthcoming 45 percent population growth”
unless the city embraces a comprehensive expansion plan.
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Contact Dan White at dwhite (at) santa-cruz.com