We made endorsements in Oakland and Berkeley city council races last month, but there are other out candidates and straight allies seeking elected office in the East Bay. Below are our recommendations.
Tracy mayor
Tracy elects its mayor, who serves alongside four council members. This year, City Councilmember Dan Tavares Arriola is running again for the top job. (He first ran unsuccessfully in 2020.) A gay man, Arriola was the first out LGBTQ elected official in the history of Tracy when he won his council seat in 2018. Reelected in 2022, Arriola decided to seek the open mayor's seat this year. (The mayor serves a two-year term while councilmembers are elected to four-year terms.)
LGBTQ issues have arisen in Tracy. Arriola, 34, stated in his endorsement questionnaire that in 2020, after the Tracy City Council passed a resolution prohibiting the raising of the LGBTQ Pride flag for a month, "I organized community members and successfully reversed the prohibition. In 2022, I became the first elected official in the nation to testify publicly at a state legislative hearing regarding monkeypox, after testing positive myself and facing a series of obstacles in accessing resources."
Tracy has a 3-2 division on its council, with Arriola in the minority, he stated. That has led to the council changing some rules "resulting in a toxic organizational environment that has caused a large loss of institutional experience with senior staff leaving the organization, as well as unacceptable large delays and confusing standards for development and permit approval," he stated. The city has missed out on some economic development opportunities that Arriola noted has harmed the city's reputation in the business community.
"It is paramount that we bring our highly dysfunctional City Council back in order to restore the public-sector morale, the public's trust in local government, and the competitiveness of our local economy," he wrote.
Arriola has the experience to be an effective mayor and to work to restore the council's effectiveness. We endorse him for mayor.
Pleasanton School Board Area 4
There are two candidates in the race and only one returned our endorsement questionnaire. Charlie Jones is a gay man (and partners with Arriola). He would be the first elected LGBTQ person in the city should he win his race for the Area 4 seat on the Pleasanton Unified School District board. Jones grew up in the East Bay city and has seven years of teaching experience. He currently teaches in Hayward.
He stated that this year he was opposed to PUSD trying to cut social-emotional counselors at every school site and worked with the local teachers' union to push back against it, successfully blocking most school sites from cuts.
Jones also worked in the Hayward district to organize a rally against a homophobic school board member during Pride and got a new and more inclusive Pride Month declaration passed in the district, culminating with the display of the LGBTQ+ Progress flag at every Hayward Unified school, he noted. "I have successfully pushed for the addition of protections for gender identity and gender expression into every one of the HUSD board/district policies," he stated.
With LGBTQ issues coming under attack in many school districts in California, Jones would be a welcome voice on the Pleasanton board. As a gay educator, he would bring his experience to help all students, staff, and families in the district. We endorse him in the Area 4 race.
Walnut Creek City Council
There are three seats up for election. We recommend Laura Patch, Cindy Darling, and Kevin Wilk.
Patch is a queer woman who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2022. Since then, she has become more involved in civic issues, including an appointment to the city's transportation commission. If elected, she would be the first known LGBTQ member of the City Council. But more than that, Patch has demonstrated a willingness to gain experience that would help her on the council.
One of the most pressing issues is housing and preserving open space, Patch stated. "We need to determine which areas of land can support additional residential development, without sacrificing natural landscape," she noted. She's open to re-examining building height limits to allow for taller buildings, which benefits both businesses and promotes high-density housing and incentivizing (with tax breaks) commercial building owners to convert or sell long-standing vacant spaces to affordable housing. She is supportive of high density housing near BART stations or on BART property.
On homelessness, Patch stated that she wants Trinity Center to begin offering all-year shelter. (The center, which provides several safety net services, currently provides overnight shelter from December through April, according to its website.)
Walnut Creek does fly the Pride flag in June, and Patch would like to see the city's art and recreation department offer more activities during the month. This year, she stated, activities were only scheduled for about half the month.
Overall, Patch has a lot of good ideas and would be a valuable addition to the council.
Darling is seeking reelection and has been an ally on the council since she was elected in 2020. She stated that she has two gay family members and has seen first hand how important a supportive environment is for LGBTQ people.
The council has been working to address housing. "Over the last 10 years, we completed two specific plans that identified sites near transit that were suitable for housing and zoned them in ways that promote housing," she stated. "We also have an inclusionary housing ordinance that requires development of affordable housing as part of market rate development or requires payment of fees."
Prior to joining the council, Darling served on the planning commission and supported BART's transit village, which puts new housing next to the station.
Darling has our endorsement for a second term.
Wilk, who was first elected in 2016, is also seeing reelection. A straight ally, he stated that he has helped make Walnut Creek a progressive city. Wilk supported the BART housing project, which is now gearing up for phases two and three, he noted.
Walnut Creek has also worked hard to recover economically from the COVID pandemic. "I was on our Rebound Committee to help businesses recover from COVID-19 by immediately instituting outdoor dining and curbside pickup at retail," he stated. "Walnut Creek has recovered better than almost any other city in California. We have a DEI task force, which LGBTQ is part of in a welcoming and diverse city."
Wilk has our endorsement for another term.
El Cerrito City Council
This Contra Costa County city likely will have an LGBTQ majority on its five-member City Council after November 5. Gabe Quinto, a gay man living with HIV, and Carolyn Wysinger, a lesbian, aren't up this year. But the other three seats are, and there are two out candidates running whom we endorse: Rebecca Saltzman and William Ktsanes.
Saltzman may be familiar to readers, as we've long covered her productive 12-year tenure as an elected member of the BART board of directors, including two stints as president. A lesbian married mom, Saltzman decided not to seek reelection to that body and wasn't looking to run for anything until one of the El Cerrito councilmembers opted not to seek reelection. Another one is also not running, meaning there are two open seats.
Saltzman has a wealth of government experience at the local, regional, state, and federal levels, given that BART deals with all of them. "As BART's representative on the West Contra Costa Transportation Commission, I have worked to improve transportation throughout West Contra Costa County," she stated in her endorsement questionnaire.
Her background and knowledge will be of benefit to El Cerrito residents.
"My expertise is in building bridges and solving problems," she stated. "I know how to secure resources for government agencies, how to build and grow coalitions, and how to manage organizations large and small, from multi-county government agencies to national issue-based non-profit organizations. I will enter City Hall with a broad range of experience, expertise, and connections that will help me bring out the best of El Cerrito."
Saltzman will be an asset to the El Cerrito community.
Ktsanes is a single gay dad. He has a young adult son with special needs whom he adopted as an infant when he was volunteering through the Peace Corps at an orphanage in Thailand, caring for babies orphaned by HIV/AIDS, he stated.
"I'm running for El Cerrito City Council to promote fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency; provide much-needed oversight and leadership; and genuinely engage residents in discussion as together we address the city's complex problems, set our priorities, make difficult decisions, and chart our city's future," he stated.
He has deep fiscal experience from the 11 years he worked in affordable housing and community development finance within the Municipal Securities Division of Citibank. Ktsanes now teaches graduate-level finance, financial ethics, economics, and business at the University of San Francisco.
In short, Ktsanes has a breadth of knowledge that will benefit the city. In response to a past state auditor's report that showed serious fiscal issues with El Cerrito, Ktsanes volunteered and served on the city's Financial Advisory Board to help the city avoid bankruptcy and map a sustainable path forward, he stated.
Ktsanes' financial background will serve the city well.
Pinole City Council
The Pinole City Council has two seats up this year and three candidates. We endorse the incumbents, Devin T. Murphy, a gay man, and Maureen Toms, a straight ally.
Murphy won in 2020 and served as mayor in 2023 (the position rotates among councilmembers).
"With nearly four years of experience as both mayor and councilmember, I bring a unique blend of leadership, expertise, and commitment to serving the Pinole community," Murphy stated. "My tenure on the City Council showcases a consistent record of delivering results and effecting positive change, embodying the principle of 'Promises Made, Promises Kept.'"
Among his accomplishments, he noted they include reopening a fire station and securing $2 million from a sales tax measure to enhance fire protection. "I also prioritized wage equity and fair overtime pay for city employees, including police officers and firefighters, and led efforts to modernize park rules and public restroom policies," he noted.
Murphy is the second gay councilmember but the first to serve as mayor. (Stephen Tilton was the first in 2006, but was recalled two years later over the ousting of a popular city manager.) Murphy championed Pinole's inaugural Citywide Earth Walk, Juneteenth, and LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations, promoting community pride and inclusivity.
Murphy has done a good job on the council and deserves reelection.
Toms stated that she grew up at a time when LGBTQ people were fighting for their rights. "I witnessed the struggle of friends that were in the closet in their youth, college and job market," she stated. "I do not want to see us go back to the times I witnessed. We need to expand rights and hearts nationwide."
Toms has been a land use planner for local jurisdictions for over 30 years. "I have worked on wind power, general plans, transit-oriented development, infrastructure, redevelopment, and climate action plans," she stated. "I bring my experience from my career to the city I live in."
She has also worked on affordable housing projects for decades and stated that she "understands the public finance piece of the puzzle." She has worked on BART housing projects in her day job.
On other issues, Toms supports bringing new businesses to the city, having a balanced budget with adequate reserves, and various environmental issues, including the city's climate action plan, which she helped draft.
Toms has good ideas for moving Pinole forward.
East Bay MUD Ward 5
This is an open seat as longtime East Bay Municipal Utility District board member Doug Linney opted not to seek reelection. Ward 5 covers the cities of Alameda and San Lorenzo, West Oakland, the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport area, and a portion of San Leandro.
We endorse Jim Oddie, a gay man and former Alameda City Council member. Oddie would bring his municipal experience to EBMUD.
"I served six years as an Alameda City Councilmember, making policy and managing a public agency's budget," Oddie stated. "EMBUD's budget is $1.45B and requires someone with this experience. I also worked for six years as the district director for then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), working every day serving the customers of this ward and helping shape policy to improve the lives of our constituents."
Bonta, now California's attorney general, has endorsed Oddie.
While Oddie pointed out that EBMUD does not have control over housing, "we can find ways to work with affordable housing developers to lower the cost of utility connections," he stated. That's the kind of willingness to work with other entities that is needed in the region on housing, as well as other issues.
Oddie's priorities include protecting against future drought; ensuring the reliability of the water supply; providing consistent, affordable, and transparent rates; and balancing the district's budget. He would be a good fit for the district.
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