Mayor’s Column

It is my true honor to serve as your Mayor for the next year. 

I wanted to share with you a quick story about my path into office. It begins when I was in 5th grade I lived on a very busy neighborhood street in San Jose. Right across the street from my childhood home was a Head Start, and a walkway to my elementary school. And everyday I would walk across this street and often would think to my young self, gosh this is a really dangerous road to cross and people need to slow down. At that time I knew nothing about the City nor how it functioned. And when I brought this up to my teacher she encouraged me to write a letter to my City Council about my concerns. Well for some reason my letter received traction and not too long afterwards the City put up a SLOW children crossing sign.

 I could not believe it! I could not believe that something was actually done and that my 10 year old voice mattered.  I could not believe there were others who cared just as much as I did about my neighborhood. And now as I think back to that experience, I realize that success could not have been achieved alone. 

 It took the encouragement of my family, my parents Carol and Oscar who are here tonight, the teacher, the City officials, plus a little determination of my own for that sign to go up. It took all of us together to be able to do good. It was a true testament to Democracy. 

And that is why I sit here before you. To simply continue to do good for you and others in our Community. Capitola is an amazing community, one that I believe people only can dream of. And it is my honor to be part of it. I intend to help our City find balance and security as we move through the pandemic and begin to rebuild. It is so important to me that we focus on supporting all people in our community, and focus on equity in all aspects of our City planning.

So thank you again to everyone, I look forward to working with all of you! Now let’s get started.