Amit Pandya announces candidacy for Salinas mayor.

Amit Pandya, a Salinas businessman and former chairman of the Salinas committee for public safety, formally announced his mayoral candidacy Wednesday for the November general election.

“Folks, we got problems,” Panya said in a nearly four-minute video, “we are paying record-high taxes and we suffer from a lack of city services, but we can fix that.”

He mentions a lack of funding for the Salinas police and fire departments and cites that as the culprit in the record-breaking number of homicide in the city last year, despite having a “brand-new public safety sales tax increase.”

Pandya is referring to the 1-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in November 2014. Pandya wanted to pass a separate 1-cent sales tax dedicated to public safety in February 2015, but the city sued to block the special tax election form going forward and claimed it was illegal and invalid.

“We ran a petition to focus tax money towards public safety and such, 13,500 voters agreed and signed. The city filed a lawsuit to stop it and squash people's voices,” Panya told the Weekly. “They succeeded.”

Other issues Pandya wants to address if he becomes mayor is the lack of after-school program to prevent youth from doing drugs and joining gangs; lack of senior centers for seniors to “enjoy and [go] gossip”; and fixing the city’s damages sidewalks.

“It is down-right dangerous to walk down the streets, we need to fix that,” he says.

Pandya is the first candidate to challenge Mayor Joe Gunter, who hasn’t yet said whether he will run for re-election.

“It’s time for us to come together and take back our cities from the clutches of the gang lords, gangs and violence,” Pandya says. “It’s going to take some time and money, but I truly believe there’s nothing we cannot do if, we the people, come together and make a decision.”

Pandya, a long-time Salinas resident, was also at the center of a California Department of Real Estate investigation in 2011 when he was president of Monterey Business Brokers. The controversy surrounded a business deal gone bad that alleged the Monterey Business Brokers violated real estate law.

“The seller lied and when confronted with facts, took the business back,” Pandya says.

Pandya adds audits conducted by the Internal Revenue Services, the Employment Development Department and the state’s Board of Equalizer all cleared his name from the investigation.

Pandya plans to hold committee listening meetings in every district over the next few months.