by Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios for City Council
I’m Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios. I’m running for city council because I have a unique background and set of skills that would be valuable on the city council. I am a Latina with a desire to bring a multi-faceted perspective to our council.
Serving constituents in Ventura for more than a decade has given me firsthand understanding of our community’s needs. It has also allowed me to cultivate strong working relationships with different levels of government. Because of those relationships City Mayor Erik Nasarenko, County Supervisor Steve Bennett, Assembly members Das Williams and Jacqui Irwin, State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, and other community leaders are supporting me.
In addition to serving in leadership roles with organizations like Ventura County Women’s Political Council, El Concilio, and working with Youth Groups, my experience in the California State Assembly gives me insight on how to solve problems through local government. Councilmembers or mayors themselves have reached out to me to help navigate the system.
Considering some of your most pressing issues, here are my thoughts:
The Drought: We need to look at long-term solutions, such as recycled water and drought-tolerant landscaping. Connecting to State water is not a permanent solution. Instead, investing on efficiency and recycling is more reliable and cost effective in the long run.
Workforce Housing: Droughts don’t change the need for housing. I strongly support redeveloping existing projects to include more workforce housing so people who work here can also live here. Projects with business units that can add housing units allow more needs to be met. Creating vibrant communities and resulting in more housing units getting into the market sooner.
Older population: We are living longer and it is estimated that by 2050, older adults will have outnumbered all children under the age of 14 for the first time in human history. With this in mind we have to look at Initiatives that focus on areas such as having a reliable transportation system to get around, ensuring our streets and sidewalks are walkable and encouraging social inclusion between our younger and our older populations.
Economic Development & Our Youth: Technology is one of the largest growing sectors and a key component to our future. I support collaborative work among the City and local networks, like VC STEM – a network of companies, universities, and government agencies, aimed at developing ways to enhance STEM education for students from pre-school through college with input from all cooperating agencies. If Ventura wants to keep thriving and have businesses stay, move or start here, we need to keep our talented youth in our community. Let’s help prepare them to be the workforce that’s needed to support a strong economic force in our community.
The council determines our quality of life now and later; and it dictates the future. I hope to, in collaboration with the entire council, bring positive changes and continue enhancing Ventura’s quality of life for our population as a whole.
