Candidate Q&A: Drew Tipton for Greenfield 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. In Greenfield, two current City Council members are running for mayor: Bob White and Yanely Martinez. 

For City Council, which is having its first district-based elections, there are two candidates for District 1, also both current councilmembers: Drew Tipton and Angela Untalon. For District 3, Rachel Ortiz will appear on the ballot and Maria Alvarado is running as a write-in candidate.  

Martinez and Untalon did not respond to the Weekly's questions. Tipton's responses are below.

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

There are many issues facing Greenfield—I believe that the biggest ones are overhauling our legacy infrastructure that has been neglected for so long, developing new commercial properties both for Greenfield and for South County, and continuing to provide the services that our population needs. 

Over the past four years, I have continued to ask the hard questions about why things have not been done, and what we need to be doing to better prepare for the future—good examples are our Fire Department and our Sewer Treatment Plant.

What are your qualifications?

I served on the Planning Commission and the Fire District Board of Directors for many years prior to running for City Council.  I have an engineering background, and that allows me to look at some of the more in-depth technical issues that the city is facing and, as I mentioned before, ask the hard questions about what we need to do, what the ramifications are if we don't do something (or what will happen if we do something wrong). 

What is your favorite thing about Greenfield?

This is an unusual race that has colleagues challenging each other. Please describe your current working relationship and whether it is good. Overall, is the current city council effective?

I think it's unusual also because it's the first of our district elections. We as candidates, the public, and even the city election officials are all learning how this works "on the fly" so to speak. We have a pretty good working relationship as long as we keep the lines of communication open. I think we all have the same goal in mind—make Greenfield a better place—but we all see different things that need to be done to get there. It's not a bad thing, because we all look at things a little bit differently, and that's what makes it even better!  

Greenfield, like all cities, is facing an ambitious housing creation target. The city still has a RHNA obligation to zone for 724 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?

I have already been speaking with Planning and Community Development Director Paul Mugan, and I believe we can do it. As you mentioned, we have to have zoning available for that many housing units. We have identified locations for infill, and are working to identify additional locations where housing could be planned.  To plan for city growth, we need to plan for a mix of commercial and residential—not just residential.  In order to develop that commercial, we need to develop a mix of residential—from very low and low income all the way up to above moderate. We need to plan for our community to be welcoming to all income levels. I believe we already have plans for additional housing that are a good mix of all of these. 

What do you think the options for infill in Greenfield? Do you support the potential to annex and expand outward?

As I mentioned before, we have already identified some areas of infill that should work well.  We are working to identify additional locations both within the city limits and within our sphere of influence that would be good locations for housing. 

One of the issues that we have in that regard, though, is the Williamson Act—we are surrounded by agricultural land, and have to keep that as agricultural.  There are limited locations where we can expand, and annexation of additional land wouldn't really help that.   

Did you support Greenfield’s appeal of its RHNA number?

I did support the appeal, but for one main reason— in the last round of RHNA allocations, most of the Monterey Bay area cities were given significant numbers to achieve. Greenfield is the only city that's even come close to hitting our targets. Now, in the new cycle, HCD has given out higher targets, in part at least due to the fact that most communities didn't hit their last targets. Now, in the new allocation, Greenfield is being penalized right alongside those cities who didn't even come close to hitting their targets.  

What is your vision for economic development in Greenfield? What opportunities would you advocate for if elected?

Economic development in Greenfield needs to focus on two areas—our downtown corridor on El Camino Real, and our Walnut Avenue Specific Plan area. Due to events in the past (including Covid!), we have not been able to develop the full potential of those two areas.  Hopefully, by going out and engaging with potential commercial tenants for the city, we can draw some of them in and build our community into "the Heart of the Valley." 

We have long discussed the CityScape plan, and have spoken with several potential developers for the Walnut Avenue sites. I would continue that, including doing research on what sorts of opportunities we may be missing.

What should city council do to make sure Greenfield is a safe community?

I believe that we are already doing a lot to make our city safe—but there are a few areas that still need work. We need to adjust our city's camera system to provide better overall coverage. We need to hire enough officers to meet our desired strength—and hire officers who want to be here and want to be a part of our community. We need to build out our Fire Department, and plan for future expansion  of the city. We need to continue our recreation programs and get everyone involved and active.  And we need to work with our County Supervisors to try to get an ambulance contract that will provide Greenfield the paramedic service that it needs.

Who are you supporting for city council/mayor?

Well, I'm supporting myself for District 1. I'm only aware of one candidate for District 3, so I'm supporting Rachel Ortiz there. For mayor? I think both of them bring strengths and weaknesses to the city. I have to say right now that I'm leaning towards Bob White, and that's because of his history and understanding of the city—we have a lot of things coming up (the Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Plan, for example) that we could use the historical knowledge to our advantage.   

Who is your proudest endorsement?

I haven't really kept track of endorsements, nor have I gone out to actively pursue them.  I know that the Salinas Valley Leadership Group has endorsed me for a second time, and I'm kind of proud of that.