City Council Candidates Forum

Candidates for Santa Cruz City Council will address local economy, business and public administration issues at a Candidates Forum September 13, 2012 at the Museum of Art and History auditorium. Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Cruz Downtown Association, and the Santa Cruz County Business Council, all eight Council candidates have indicated their intention to attend.

In preparation for the forum the candidates have been asked to complete a questionnaire describing the positions on a variety of local economic and business issues. Topic areas include:

• Economic Development and the candidates’ ideas for sustaining the work of the recently dissolved Redevelopment Agency.
• Downtown, especially questions regarding downtown behavior and ambiance.
• Infrastructure, emphasizing water policies, transportation infrastructure, sustainable electric power, and broadband access.
• City/UCSC relations, including UCSC growth, and technology transfer.
• Public Safety, inquiring about efforts to eliminate illegal campsites and address gang issues.
• Visitor-serving opportunities, looking at investment and reinvestment opportunities in lodging and full utilization of the City’s parks and recreation resources.
• City administration, including questions about increasing the predictability and efficiency of land use decisions and budget constraints emphasizing a shortfall in pension funding.

Download the questions and candidates' answers.

The forum will be free and open to the public. It will also be recorded for rebroadcast on SCCTV and streamed live.