Candidate Q&A: Kimbley Craig for Salinas mayor.

As part of the 2022 election season, the Weekly asked candidates for several offices to answer questions about some of the issues by email. Kimbley Craig, the current Salinas mayor, faces challenger Amit Pandya. 

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

Homelessness and housing.

I've been actively addressing them in the city since becoming mayor in 2020, establishing a partnership with the county for our SHARE Center, and taking a "housing first" approach to homelessness—meaning if you put a roof over someone's head, they are far more likely to accept the services they need (mental health services, drug/alcohol rehabilitation, job assistance, etc.) to transition out of homelessness. I am proud that we are one of the few cities in CA working with state funding (a whopping $29 million) for Project Homekey, which turns motels into transitional housing with services for homeless residents. Housing continues to be an issue countywide, but Salinas is being creative with our inventory. We do well with market-rate housing, and we actually have done relatively well with our low-income housing numbers compared to the rest of the county—my focus in the upcoming years will be centered on workforce housing, for middle-income residents who make too much to qualify for low-income, but don't meet the threshold to be able to afford market-rate housing. The apartments on Abbott St. for teachers is a good example; another is four free pre-approved "granny unit" plans available (Craftsman, Mid-Century, Spanish and Ranch styles to choose from) online for people who want to build an ADU in their backyard to fast track the process, or the Future Growth Area for more medium-density housing—like condos and apartments.

Why am I the best candidate to address these issues? Honestly, I'm in the middle of it right now—I'm loving the progress, and I'd like to continue doing it. I couldn't imagine having someone come in as a new mayor and try to get caught up to speed with everything that's in play right now.

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

I have attended every single council meeting because I run them. LOL. Yes, I think the current council is effective. I sometimes wish there was greater compromise, but overall we are getting a lot of stuff done with the current City Manager.

For Kimbley: You ran for county supervisor in June. What can you say to voters to assure them that this is the elected role you want when you were just a few months ago looking for higher office?

I have said this time and time again—my passion is to serve. Salinas mayor is a part-time position. Running for Supervisor would have enabled me to do it full time, and serve the residents of Salinas at a higher level. But that passion is still there, which is why I want to continue doing it.

The Downtown Vibrancy Plan has been years in the making and it is no longer just on paper, but you can see the changes in the streetscape and the neighborhood. Do you think the city did a good job on implementing this plan? What could have been done better?

I'm really proud of the downtown. You can just feel the vibe now on a Friday night. In 2015, the City Council adopted the Downtown Vibrancy Plan—I worked on it through 2018 (the end of my council term) and was proud to finish it up from 2020-2021 as Mayor. I would like to see more workforce housing available downtown—we have close to 400 low (and very low) income housing units within that small footprint. It would be nice to balance it out with workforce and market-rate housing. It's important to ensure you have widespread options for all types of housing, all over the city.

With the Alisal Vibrancy Plan also in the works, are there any lessons learned you would apply? What do you hope and believe is a realistic timeline to see that plan begin to really take effect now that SVSWA has closed the Sun Street Transfer Station?

The Sun Street Transfer station was supposed to be a temporary site in 2005, so in local government terms, "temporary" means 17 years. This was a huge accomplishment for us to move a dump out of the center of East Salinas—and begin the process of partnering with Republic Services for an enclosed, cleaner transfer station. That also paves the way for the Alisal Vibrancy Plan (AVP), which is a much, much larger plan than what we did with downtown. It should be—it's nearly 40% of the city's population.

We have nearly $6 million so far allocated for the AVP, and it includes a much larger footprint than the DVP. I would say you'll start to see a difference in the upcoming couple of years—Bardin Road is being redone, East Alisal—it has been an underfunded area of Salinas for decades, so it will take some time.

Salinas, like all local cities, is facing an ambitious housing creation target. The city still has a RHNA obligation to zone for 6,674 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?

We're currently at 44% of our RHNA goal (with 278 housing units added in 2021) and our housing inventory is growing. I think encouraging the development of our Future Growth Area, which is planned for 11,000 homes, will be a critical element to achieve our RHNA numbers. Additionally, being creative (as I mentioned above) with fast-tracking ADU permits (we issued 213 ADU permits in the last two years), and welcoming development and incentivizing medium-density housing projects will be really important so we can achieve the housing inventory we need here in Salinas. There's a really great housing recap analysis the council received from staff on March 22 this year if you want to find out more. I refer to it regularly.

In terms of economic development, do you believe Salinas should pursue any particular direction? Is there more opportunity in ag tech? Would you like to see an Amazon warehouse, for example?

I'm open to whatever makes sense—ag tech certainly does, since it's our primary industry here and the ag companies are moving that direction. We've had big names and big companies from Silicon Valley sniffing around Salinas, and I've always welcomed the concept of good paying jobs, and welcoming business to Salinas. As former Councilwoman to North Salinas, I recognized the north side held a lot of retail space that needed restaurants and better retail—it was important for me to work with Northridge Mall on their remodel, to work with the retail centers to get Lowe's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sonic Drive-In, BJ's and Chipotle here.

What should Salinas do about homelessness? What are your plans to address this issue?

As I mentioned earlier, providing case management and wraparound services with housing is the leading way to help someone transition out of homelessness. The SHARE Center, MoonGate Plaza in Chinatown, the GoodNite Inn, and soon the Salinas Inn and Sanborn Inn are all examples of that transitional housing with case management that has occurred in the last two years since I've become Mayor. That helps reduce homelessness in our community, and provides low-barrier options to encourage people to accept those services (like storage of belongings, accepting pets, or families, or couples, etc.) We will never completely resolve homelessness, but we can certainly try new things and work to reduce it.

Do you think the police department is adequately funded, under-funded or is its budget bloated? What kind of changes would you like to make, if any, to city-police department relations?

I think the police department is under-funded, and it is shown with the struggle in hiring and retaining our officers. I've always been supportive of law enforcement in Salinas—it's important for residents to feel safe in our community.

I also think they've made great strides in hiring officers who are local, and reflective of our community. This helps with community relations and earns trust with residents if they know officers personally. It points to things like successfully solving all 10 homicides this year—something that they could not do without the assistance of witnesses and people stepping forward.

As a point of interest—as of last year, the majority of SPD officers are POC; they have the highest percentage of Spanish speaking officers that they've had in decades. They also have hired 15 female officers—a remarkably high number for the department. I certainly encourage hiring more local people as officers, as I think it works to improve the relationship between the department and the citizens of Salinas.

Do you believe Salinas used its $54 million in ARPA funds effectively? What would you have changed, if anything, about the allocation and process for determining how to allocate those funds?

It's actually $51.5 million, but I'm not about to publicly correct the Weekly, LOL. ARPA funding was restricted to water, broadband, sewer and reimbursement of budget that was lost to Covid closures. Despite it sounding super unsexy to the average person, the state-mandated stormwater plan, the sewer system work, and the silt removal from our creeks were from the original staff recommendation and survived the ax, so I am a happy camper. Truthfully, I think the process was a bit messy for our council. Staff provided a recommended budget, and council moved money around from the dais during the council meeting. As a result, it was a split vote—4 to 3. I voted against the alternate budget that was proposed. I think if it had not been an impulsive vote, we could have had greater support with the other three councilmembers (myself included) on what was being changed on the fly.

In hindsight, I actually agree with about 85% of how that funding was alternatively proposed by council, and would probably have voted in favor of those proposed changes if we had just had more dialogue, perhaps an additional meeting, and numbers actually written down to review before voting on such a large amount of funding.

What should the city’s role be in pursuing regional water solutions?

The challenges we face on the water supply issue requires regional solutions. As the biggest city in Monterey County, Salinas has a responsibility and a major interest in partnering to produce real solutions. Water is a resource and Salinas is the largest producer of water that goes to the CSIP—even wastewater must be utilized. As advancements in technology and new approaches to water conservation become feasible, I will ensure Salinas remains a leader, a partner, and a collaborator in expanding our water supply to the benefit of all our residents, and all county residents.

Please rate the performance of the city manager, the city attorney and the police chief.

I maintain we have an all-star team in place—Steve Carrigan is a relatively new hire (2021) for City Manager. He is proactive, responds to the council with a "can-do" attitude and works daily to ensure the needs of our businesses and our residents are handled.

Our City Attorney, Chris Callihan, is a lifelong Salinas resident, and hands-down one of the smartest guys I know. He is sharp, and solution-oriented (which I can appreciate in local government.)

And our Police Chief Roberto Filice continues to focus on community outreach and policing, using modern technology for police work, he has the trust of the council, and has a positive attitude with the resources the council has given him.