Candidate Q&A: Les Martin for Marina City Council.

As part of the 2022 election season, the Weekly asked candidates for several offices to answer questions about some of the issues by email. Leslie D. Martin is running against Liesbeth Visscher to represent District 4 on the Marina City Council.

What are the biggest issues facing Marina in the next four years, and why are you the best candidate to address them?

There are many issues facing Marina and the City Council.  I grouped them into five topics:

A. Ensuring efficient city government.

B. Supporting smart planned growth including residential and commercial needs.

C. Supporting city police, firefighters, and all city employees.

D. Completing removal of remaining Fort Ord structures.

E. Modernizing city infrastructure. 

During my thirty-five year career in the federal government (30 years active duty Naval Officer and five years in the civil service) I had significant leadership and decision making experience that is directly applicable to the types of decisions required of a council member. My experience involved leadership positions in financial management, contracting, and logistics. I served in demanding sea billets, assigned to Naval ships, including an aircraft carrier at sea with an embarked air wing. I supported crisis responses such as the 9/11 attack on U.S. while I was assigned to the Joint Staff in the Pentagon and in response to the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident while I was the Deputy Director for Logistics at U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii.  

I have significant experience making and executing budgets, managing manpower for large organizations, and executing policies derived from law or higher direction. I also have a MBA from Duke University, a top 10 program and a second master degree in National Resource Management from a DOD senior service college. I have the education and experience to help the city.

With the closure of Fort Ord and the end of the Ford Ord Reuse Authority (FORA), Marina must manage the removal of hundreds of existing buildings. The city is about to execute a contract to make another major step forward in this area — removing some of the buildings on 2nd Avenue and some in the area known as Cypress Knolls. During the last campaign for the District 3 City Council seat in 2020, this was my priority number one. I obtained 25 percent of the vote with almost no prior knowledge of Marina issues. I was the one that pointed out that our high school students had to walk through the desolate area along Rendova Road to get to school. The city plan to remove the buildings along this path was directly due to my concerns raised in 2020. This contract will not complete the work. The Dunes developer will remove additional buildings, and there will be more buildings the city must remove in another phase. FORA bond funds are coming in to support this removal without additional burden on residents. We need to ensure those funds are not redirected elsewhere until the blight is gone.

The Marina Coast Water District has responsibility to remove the structures on 4th Avenue in the Dunes development. I have already been in contact with MCWD board members about removal of those structures. They still do not have a timetable for removing those buildings. I will hold all parties' feet to the fire to remove those structures at the earliest possible opportunity.

Marina is in desperate need of modern 21st-century-capable buildings to support the Fire Department, Police Department and City Administration. Currently, the current city hall and city council chambers, community center, and community development annex are inadequate. Originally built as temporary facilities, these buildings are now over 45 years old and require significant maintenance, American Disability Act (ADA) updates and repairs for continuance of use — with an estimated cost of $7 million. The existing police and fire station facility is over 20 years old and will not meet future needs. The way ahead to replace these facilities still needs to be fully debated and finalized. I will support efforts to develop new 21st-century capabilities for our city and bring this issue to a vote in a bond referendum in a near future election.

How often do you currently attend City Council meetings? Do you think the current council is effective?

I first became interested in Council actions when I saw the district layout plan in 2019. Gerrymandering was obvious. I decided to pay attention and even entered the 2020 race for District 3.  In that three-way race, I quickly realized I had a lot to learn, running against Gale Morton (8 years on Council) and Christina Medina-Dirksen (20-year resident). As a candidate, I attended all the meetings for about six months.

Afterwards, I monitored agendas, frequently posted online by Councilmember Medina-Dirksen and I listened in for issues related to blight removal, developer plans, park discussions, and the new redistributing effort following the 2020 census.

I actually have been very impressed with the current City Council discussions. It is clear to me that all five (including mayor) really care about what they are doing and their discussions lead to good decisions. I normally found myself agreeing with their decisions. At times, I would like to have seen less discussion but the mayor always was fair to those that wanted to speak.   was never quite sure how the agenda was developed.  Was it driven by the mayor/council or the city manager?  

Yes, I believe the current council has been effective.

Marina is growing quickly as Marina Community Partners develops. Do you think anything needs to be done to connect new neighborhoods to existing neighborhoods? What vision will you bring to help Marina feel cohesive?

While running for council in 2020, I detected that many of the residents from the older neighborhoods did not care about the issues with respect to the former Fort Ord areas. There is clearly a big difference between the new neighborhoods and some of the older areas. I think all council members still consider themselves as reps for the entire city when making decisions.  

Though we actually have specific constituents, we need to maintain a balanced and fair approach to decision making to ensure all areas of the city benefit from our growth. The new District 4 rep will finally give the new neighborhoods a voice in the decision-making process and this is a positive step forward. They all need to work together for the good of the entire city, not just one segment.

Marina is unusual in that growth is actively happening. But the city still has a RHNA obligation to zone for 685 new housing units by 2031. What are you going to do to help the city achieve that RHNA number, and to advance affordable housing units specifically?

Our future developments need to ensure we have more multi-unit type homes in the plans. My first home purchase in San Diego, years ago, was a condo. We don’t have nearly enough of these types of homes in our developments. On the East Coast, there are a lot of townhouses. Don’t see a lot of these. My son lives on Palo Alto. They have a lot of large condos and apartments going up. These types of units will be needed if we want to get housing prices under control.  

Tradeoffs may be needed with respect to water and environmental restrictions, if we will grow, as needed. We also should not let the developers buy their way out of their affordable housing obligations. I have a lot to learn about the housing issue. I am a supporter of the free market getting it done. We have to be careful not to tie their hands in knots, if we want to build more. However, both Marina and Seaside have significant projects moving forward and it is a great time to live here.

Cal Am has resubmitted its application for a desalination plant in Marina. Would you be able or willing to help broker a dialogue between Cal Am and the city? Are there specific environmental justice concessions that you believe should be made?

This is an area that I have been studying to understand better. As a Naval Officer, I have sailed across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. We used desalination to produce our water the entire time. It works. Even the governor's new plan calls for desalination, as one of four lines of effort needed for California. California needs desalination.

With respect to your question, to be able to act as a broker on this issue, you would need to be seen as a fair broker. I have no ties with any group that would impede my ability to negotiate a deal. I am not sure many in Marina want a deal with Cal Am.

Board members from MCWD have told me that their past experience with desal led them to stop using it. The beach erosion issue alone may make this proposal difficult in execution at this site. They advised me that they also gave Cal Am recommendations to improve their project and Cal Am did not take their recommendations. Additionally, there is ample waterfront property in Cal Am’s customer area to build this capability there. Why not in Sand City or Pacific Grove? The fact that the residents in those areas do not want this plant does not mean Marina should be forced to accept a project they do not want.

I am also concerned about the unknown impact of pulling the water from the slant wells. I understand the test well did pull some water from Marina groundwater aquifers (10%). There is concern this could spread seawater intrusion particularly at the high volumes planned by Cal Am. In the critical area where Cal Am wants to set up this capability (the Cemex plant), there are a lot of unknowns with respect to how the different aquifers interact, potentially endangering the critical 400-foot aquifer and the deep aquifer.  A lot of these issues are way above my level of understanding but they appear to raise valid concerns. 

During a County Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 20, most people seemed to support a regional approach on desalination. There will continue to be a big push for the Cal Am project. MCWD also stated they are looking at restarting their own desal capability. I would support that, assuming it is done in a way to protect the environment.

For a long time, Marina has served as a watchdog to Cal Am’s desalination proposal. Is there any other role Marina can/should play on regional water issues?

In setting up the City of Marina Groundwater Sustainability Agency (MGSA), I believe Marina has entered into an area where they don’t have the technical expertise and they have spent a lot of tax dollars to do it. There are already so many other agencies dealing with water that it has created a very confusing picture. I think Marina should let the water authorities handle this. Why wouldn’t Marina ask MCWD to take control of the small strip of land that makes up MGSA? There are too many players in water in the county now. We need to simplify water management, not make it impossible. This is the only place I have lived that I had separate water and sewer bills. MCWD and Monterey One Water? That is just the beginning of the confusing alphabet soup that makes up water management in Monterey County. Very inefficient.

Do you like the current Dadwal hotel proposal? Is there anything you would change about it?

I have only seen a very early plan. I do not have enough knowledge of the current status to recommend changes. I liked the original proposals when their were four competitors. Have not seen it since.

Do you think the equestrian center concession agreement was handled well? How would you have voted on that contract?

I have seen some online complaints about how it was handled but I do not think those criticisms are valid. Council handled this in a very open way. It was addressed multiple times. Councilmember Medina-Dirksen personally advertised the various meetings in advance to make people aware of the upcoming discussions.  

With respect to the contract, the city spent a lot of time agreeing on this vendor and negotiating with this vendor. I recommended to several council members that the city should go through with it. The city raises some revenue and continues to operate the stables in a fashion acceptable to the National Park Service. The options to non-comply with the NPS agreement are not acceptable. Had I been on council, I would have supported the new contract and recommend the city continue to push the federal agency to allow long term boarding on a space available basis to defray costs of operation of the facility.

How is cannabis going in Marina? Would you like to see the number of cannabis businesses increased?

I regularly ride my bike for exercise. As time has gone along, I smell marijuana being smoked in public more and more. I think legalizing it was a mistake. We know how devastating cigarette smoking was to my father's generation. How much worse is smoking this? How many young people are going to end up in a bad place because we made this decision? I have heard more about the detrimental effects of smoking this product.

No, I do not want to see more cannabis businesses in Marina. I also realize we won’t be turning that clock back. Too bad.

Do you think the public comment period at council meetings should be shortened? What will you do if elected to increase public engagement?

I agreed with the mayor's recommendation to reduce comment period from four minutes to three minutes. I have made multiple comments in this forum and three minutes is more than enough time for anybody to make a comment. Most people that used the entire four minutes were usually rambling on about something that frequently was way off the discussion point. As the mayor stated, four minute comments in Marina meetings was more than most other towns.

I have no current plan to increase public engagement. Lack of interest by the public is clear. I was disappointed we only had one candidate for mayor and one candidate for District 1. I am pleased to see that we have a competitive race in District 4. Democracy does not work well when people do not participate. Perhaps if we tighten up the meetings more, they will appear more productive and more people will participate.

I like the Zoom format [for public meetings]. I hope it can be maintained after the Covid emergency is ended officially.