Come November, a trailblazing female candidate will be elected to represent Senate District 19—one way or another.
Democrat Lisa Middleton, a member of the Palm Springs City Council, would become the first transgender person in the California Legislature. Incumbent Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh is the first Republican Latina elected to the state Senate. A longtime real estate agent, she won her first state Senate election in 2020.
Senate District 23, Ochoa Bogh’s current district, partially overlaps with the new District 19, which incorporates large parts of the Coachella Valley, the high desert and the San Bernardino Mountains. Due to a quirk of California’s redistricting process, Senate District 19 has not had an actual representative over the last two years; District 32 Sen. Kelly Seyarto, from Murietta, has been acting as the “caretaker” representative.
On her website, Middleton lists many dozens of endorsements, including numerous labor unions, the Sierra Club California, and myriad Democratic elected officials. Ochoa Bogh similarly lists endorsements from numerous Republican elected officials, and public-safety organizations like the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association.
The Independent recently spoke with both candidates and asked each of them the same slate of six questions. Here are their responses; they have been edited only for clarity and editorial style.
Lisa Middleton
District 19 is a large district, including much of the Coachella Valley, a large swath of the Inland Empire and the high desert all the way to the Nevada border. How are you preparing to represent all of these voters?
It is a very large district, and there are some unique communities within (it). We have the Coachella Valley area, where I have lived for over 13 years, then the San Gorgonio Pass communities. I’ve worked very closely with city council members in those areas on regional boards and through the League of California Cities, where I’ve been president of the Riverside County Division, second vice president of the statewide league and a member of the board for a number of years. Then you have Redlands, Loma Linda, Grand Terrace and portions of Highland and Colton. It’s been a while, but I lived in Loma Linda in the 1980s, so I’ve got familiarity with those areas. Some (things have) changed, and some things have absolutely remained the same, and I’m very comfortable moving around in those communities.
In the mountain communities of Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead and Crestline, one of the issues that is central to those communities is emergency management. We’ve certainly gone through it here in Palm Springs, most particularly with the flooding and tropical storm that we had last summer, but we made sure that we had the resources to be prepared. What happened two years ago in the mountain communities, is the emergency management systems were not prepared for a snowstorm of the degree that occurred, and we had homes that were inaccessible for up to two weeks, and numerous individuals who could not get out of their homes for over a week. And we know what potential fire danger is through all of those communities, so I’m going to make emergency management one of the most important issues that I plan to address in the state Legislature, to make sure that at a time of crisis, our communities have the resources that we need.
Over the last three years, the governor has declared an emergency over 30 different times in one part of the state or another, from wildfires to flooding, and we’ve not had the massive earthquake that we know is potentially in our future. That commitment to emergency management is something that is going to resonate in this district.
And with all due respect, my opponent had those mountain communities within her district when the snow emergency occurred. I’ve not talked to anyone who said she was the one who stood up for us and made sure we got what we needed. In fact, I’ve talked to people who said she was not there when (they) needed her.
The high desert communities of Apple Valley and Barstow, one of the big issues going on in that area is the construction of a high-speed rail that’s going to connect Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga. There will be a stop in Apple Valley, which is a part of my district. So, I’m excited about this project and its potential for the future. We’ve got to be prepared to handle all of the work that’s going to be involved, to make sure construction is moving properly. And one of the things I’ve heard concerns from union members who hope to be working on the jobs out there (is) we’re talking about massive construction across desert communities where the temperatures get to 110, 115, 120 degrees. We’ve got to have health care systems in place so that work can be done safely, and workers can go to work in the morning and come home in the evening.
What are the most pressing needs of district residents? How will you tackle those issues, if elected?
Infrastructure and building our roadways. One of the most important infrastructure projects I want to work on is bringing daily rail service to Coachella Valley. Anyone who’s taken that drive, particularly into Los Angeles on a Sunday afternoon when everybody’s coming home, knows how crowded we are. The kind of resort community that we are in the Coachella Valley is one that would be extremely amenable to rail transit from Los Angeles and Orange County. That’s a project I’m going to work on every single day.
I’ve told people that when I get to Sacramento, there will be a small train on the front of my desk, and nobody is going to get to talk about anything until I tell them how important it is that we bring rail service into the Coachella Valley. We are the fastest-growing region in terms of population growth and industry in California, but we’ve not kept pace in building out the roadways. You talk to so many of our residents, particularly those who are commuting to Los Angeles and Orange County for work, and it is a two- and three-hour drudge getting to where they need to go.
We also need to ensure that people have a cost of living they can afford, and that begins with people receiving a living wage for the work they do. My opponent has opposed the right of representation at every turn, and it is the unions, as President Biden said, who built the middle class. So, I’m going to be standing up very strongly in supporting individuals having someone who can represent them, so that the balance of power between the employer and the employee is something closer to a responsible balance of power. What we know is when employees are represented, they have far greater job security. Their incomes go up, (and) they feel safer at work. Standing up for representation is a part of making sure that folks have a living wage. When California recently increased the minimum wage for fast-food workers, my opponent voted no. I’m going to support making sure that everyone in California is paid a living wage.
There is this idea that, if we pay people a living wage, then products and services are going to become unaffordable. I think that’s bogus. What it really is, is an effort to hold down individuals so they are not able to work one job and care for their families. What we find is, those employers who work with their employees and have the best working conditions also tend to be the most profitable organizations and the most longstanding. Look at the automobile industry. There have been ups and downs, but it was Henry Ford, the industrialist, who recognized over 100 years ago, “If my workforce can’t afford the product I’m producing, I’m not going to be able to sell it.”
Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing are often two sides of the same coin. How do you plan to address these issues while still advocating for growth and development?
I’m going to take homelessness and housing and separate them a bit.
We’ve faced the same kinds of challenges that so many other communities have faced in terms of homelessness. We’re opening a navigation center to address this issue. Clearly, we need to be building tens of thousands more homes than we are building, and to the extent that we catch up with the housing needs we have, that should help to make housing more affordable for working families.
Today, housing in California is incredibly expensive; it’s the most expensive place in the United States. Let’s step back and address one of the reasons why California is so expensive. Everyone who can wants to live here, and because they want to live here, we have people coming. One of the reasons they come is not just simply the incredible climate and environment that we have, but the creativity of the California economy has created jobs. When I travel to talk to people in many states, what they’re worried about is their young people moving away, because they don’t have the jobs in the industries to employ them. We don’t have that issue here in California.
We need to make it easier for people to build homes. So, we need to streamline many of our processes and procedures. We need the business community and building community to be more creative in terms of the types of homes and the range of homes that they build. It’s not the 1950s anymore. You can’t just go to the next piece of open land and expect that California is going to build a freeway to your new subdivision, (or that) you can build the same kind of house that you’ve been building for 60, 70 years. We’re going to have to have more infill. One of the things I’m committed to doing, is we need to have more cooperation between the state and localities in building homes and creating more incentives and funding for those cities that want to build housing. We’ve got an awful lot of places that are desperate to build the housing we need, if they can find the financing. Let’s use some of our financial resources to help those who want to build. This is across the spectrum.
California has committed to addressing homelessness, to providing the funding. We passed a major initiative. One of the things, though, that concerns me, is cities and counties are going up to Sacramento each year trying to get funding for homelessness services. If you want someone to build a program that’s going to exist for a decade or more, you can’t have them dependent on funding that could be up in one year. There needs to be a commitment of funding over time.
There are more things, when it comes to delivering services to the homeless, that the state needs to do itself rather than relying on local cities. What we have done since we closed all of the mental hospitals in the 1960s and 70s is moved the responsibility to municipalities for delivering services to individuals who are without health insurance, without jobs, (and) oftentimes, with mental health issues and addiction issues. Municipalities were never set up to deliver public health services, but that’s what we’re being asked to do. One of the things I’m going to try to do in Sacramento is stop the finger-pointing as to who should have been doing what and (determine) who is best able to work with individuals who have addiction issues and mental health issues and make sure, in a humane way, we get people the services they need so that they can recover. For those who are homeless solely for economic reasons, we get them a job that pays a living wage which allows them to be able to care for their families in the way that they want to care for their families.
Water and air quality are perennial problems in the region. How do you intend to tackle these problems that are inherent to the region?
Water quality is a critically important issue. Water access, we know, is extremely important. We have, across Southern California, tens of millions of people who live in an area that would be unsustainable, except for the fact that we have built the most extensive water network system that has ever been built anywhere in the world, bringing water from the Owens Valley into Los Angeles, the State Water Project that brings water from Northern California into Southern California, and then all of the Colorado River Basin. We are incredibly dependent on the rainfall that we know some years comes, and other years does not.
One of the fundamental challenges we have, not just simply as a state or even this specific region, (but) all of the western United States: We’re dependent upon Colorado River water and the State Water Project and making sure that we’re managing those resources for the needs of the next 30 to 40 years.
It was Gov. Pat Brown, back in the early 1960s, who made the State Water Project possible. His insight has benefited us now 60 years down the road. I think we owe it to the people who are going to follow us to have that same kind of commitment to making sure that we put systems in place that are going to be lasting for air quality.
One of the things we absolutely need to be doing is addressing climate change in a responsible fashion. Today across the United States, 80% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels. We’ve got a major effort underway for individuals to move from gas-powered cars to electric cars. Well, if you plug in your electric car to electricity that has been produced by coal or fossil fuels, we’ve not achieved what we are really trying to achieve. That 20% of electricity that’s coming from renewable sources today—wind, solar, hydro power—we need to be expanding, and that’s going to require a tremendous financial commitment. I have a record on that. I’m a member of the CalPERS, California Public Employees Retirement System, board of directors. We believe that the future in terms of energy production is going to come from renewables, and that’s where the profits are going to come as well. And so today, we’ve got, out of a portfolio of just under $500 billion, approximately $50 billion in various renewable projects and are committed, by the end of this decade, to adding another $50 billion in investments. My opponent has said that we need to go slow on addressing climate change. I believe we need to be responsible. That means building out the solar and wind necessary to make that energy transition.
What are the defining accomplishments of your political career so far?
I’m proud of some of the things that we’ve done here in Palm Springs. We worked very closely with the business community and the neighborhoods, and we’ve grown the economy. In the first year I was on City Council, we brought in $110 million in city revenues. This year is going to exceed $190 million. That is because our sales tax revenues have gone up tremendously. We’ve got more stores and restaurants, and they’re doing better than they have ever done. Our hotels, with our transit occupancy tax, have done extremely well. So, we’ve grown the economy. What that has allowed us to do is, we’ve taken our police department budget from $23 million to $43 million. That means we’ve got more police out on the street, and we’re able to better protect the safety of our community. We’ve taken our fire budget from $16 million to $27 million in that same period of time. We repaved every other street in the city. We have started work on the rehabilitation of our library. Those are things that make a difference in the safety and quality of life of people who are living here.
We know that if you have good years, you’re also going to have some bad years. Our reserves when I came on council were $32 million. That’s the money that we’ve set aside to make sure that we’re prepared for a rainy day. Today, it stands at over $125 million. We have added $100 million in reserves. That is a remarkable accomplishment in terms of making sure that this city is fiscally sound and responsible, and we’ve done it while being absolutely committed to the values of treating everyone with respect, of being a welcoming community to people across the spectrum, and holding true to our values that Palm Springs is going to be an incredibly inclusive community.
I am incredibly proud of our financial record over the course of the time that I’ve been on city Council. We’ve been a very strong city that has been able to do some things and pay for it, because we have invested in our city.
What is your ideal night out in the Coachella Valley? Where are you going, and what are you doing?
My favorite part of the Coachella Valley is my home and my back patio. My ideal time is spending time with my family, and so, I look forward to and cherish every one of those days. My wife and I are very, very fortunate. We have a son and daughter and two grandchildren, and a third on the way.
We have a few favorite restaurants that we enjoy going to, and then always the interactions with friends and people who are here. I was remarking the other day: I don’t care how hot it is; those mountains are always absolutely, stunningly gorgeous. So, I never tire of looking at God’s creation of those mountains and the backdrop that is provided to us, no matter where you are in the Coachella Valley.
(I want to) touch on a couple of things that did not get covered. My opponent has opposed a woman’s right to choose. I believe absolutely in the reproductive freedom of every woman to make those decisions for herself without any interference (from) government, and that is something that is under attack in the United States today. So far, we are safe in California, but we are only safe because the overwhelming majority of the state Legislature has made sure that we’re safe. I will be a part of that majority that will never back down and will not go back.
My opponent has not supported marriage equality. Not just simply in Palm Springs, but numerous parts of the Coachella Valley, there are thousands of couples who are married today, that when they first met, (they) never dreamed they would be able to get married, men and women who have been together for decades.
One of the most moving things that I’ve been able to do as a member of the City Council is perform weddings. I can’t tell you what it’s like to be performing a wedding for two men who have been together for 30 years and finally get the opportunity to be married to the person that they have loved and cared for, for 30 years. No matter how they looked when they walked into chambers, when we start officiating that service, the tears start flowing. By the time we are finished with that three, four-minute ceremony, those gentlemen, over and over again, are crying tears of joy. That there are people in this country, including my opponent, who can’t recognize that joy and that love and give it official sanction, is a fundamental difference between us, and I’m not going to back down.
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh
District 19 is a large district, including much of the Coachella Valley, a huge swath of the Inland Empire, and the high desert all the way to the Nevada border. How are you preparing to represent all of these voters?
That’s a great question. So, you know, it’s interesting, because when I first decided to run for my current seat, I did so knowing the area really well, knowing that I had grown up in San Bernardino, and our family members were all throughout the Inland Empire … going back to my grandparents, who immigrated here probably around the ’50s, and my husband’s side of the family, immigrating or coming down to California in this area, probably the early ’40s. Let me just say that my husband’s great-grandfather, I think three or four generations back, actually was the first mayor for San Bernardino.
So, we have very deep roots in the area. It’s home. So, it’s just very natural to know, work, (have) businesses and schooling; our kids went to school in the area. It’s just a very natural, organic way of knowing the area and representing it, because we’re engaged in it. It is that mindset for me as to knowing and working in the area that I’m taking into the new district.
What I have been doing to prepare to best represent the area is meeting with stakeholders in the different, new areas. So, speaking to the chamber of commerce: As a former member of the chamber of commerce, board and president/chair of the chamber of commerce, I know how intimately local businesses are in tune with the community, so (I’m) getting to know their perspective, understanding what’s working and not working. Many of those business owners are local residents of the area, so they can really give me a lot of the insights into their areas, getting to know what their priorities are, which, quite frankly, they’re very similar.
I’ve also been meeting with elected officials from the different cities; I believe there are approximately 15 new cities that would be encompassing the new Senate District 19. So, I’ve been meeting with some of these electeds to get their perspective on the area. I’ve also met with a former city manager, one of the planning commissioners for one of the cities, the mayors, a couple of school board members, and some police and law enforcement officers. I’ve also asked to be connected, in my current district, with family members or friends in those areas. I’m also visiting the different cities, visiting things that are kind of the epitome of those areas, so that I can get to know the district a little better. For me, accurate representation means understanding and knowing those communities.
I’ve been trying to embed myself as much as possible, considering the fact that I’m still doing my government official work in my current district, which includes 35 cities and communities, while also trying to navigate and learn, because that’s very important for me. I want to love my new district the way that I love (District 23).
What are the most pressing needs of district residents? How will you tackle those issues, if elected?
As you probably already know, my current (District 23) expands all the way from Rancho Cucamonga on my west end to Colton, a little bit of Rialto, and then Loma Linda. It goes all the way down to Menifee, Redlands, Hemet, San Jacinto. I have all of San Bernardino, all of Highland, all of Redlands, all of the mountain communities, as well as the (San Gorgonio) Pass area. So … Yucaipa, Cherry Valley, Mentone, Beaumont, Banning and Cabazon. It’s a pretty diverse area, economically as well. The mountain communities, of Hemet and San Jacinto—those are probably my most rural communities, and there’s still a lot of development happening in the pass area, in which they have a lot of land. So, we have a lot of growth going on in those communities.
The new district, which encompasses Barstow, Apple Valley, Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, Yucca Valley, Desert Hot Springs and, of course, the Coachella Valley, which is all of the desert—it’s very diverse. Common themes amongst all of them are how costly it is to live in California. Some can mitigate it a little better than others, and that depends on economic opportunity within those areas, and this is why businesses are so important to help ensure that those community members have access to employment opportunities.
For me, it is ensuring and continuing my efficacy in limiting the regulatory environment for businesses so that it doesn’t cost so much to do business, and it makes it a little easier for businesses to start up, for those who would rather not commute, but stay within their communities and work remotely. That’s something that we need to understand and ensure that the environment is healthy for that type of commerce. We need to focus on the regulatory environment for California businesses as a whole, which is very cumbersome, especially for small businesses.
In conjunction with that, all of them have concerns, in some areas a little bit more than others, when it comes to addressing homelessness, whether it’s expanding mental-health bed capacity within those areas, which I’ve done. I introduced bills on that before the governor came with his plan on expanding mental-health bed capacity. I was the very first to introduce that legislation twice, including last year, when I introduced it in February. (Newsom) came out in March, saying, “Now is the time to expand mental-health bed capacity,” but I had proposed to the Legislature that we do it within our budget, understanding that we had spent over $20 billion with regards to addressing homelessness, but really had not been very effective in combating it, because the numbers showed that we had increased our homelessness numbers, rather than decrease.
One of the issues that came to my attention as the vice chair for housing as well as public safety, and in conversations with my San Bernardino sheriff, was the fact that people were being incarcerated rather than receiving the medical, mental and behavioral health services that they needed. So, with that mindset, I introduced the bill to expand mental health capacity, the first time asking for a billion dollars a year to expand it across the continuum of need. The second year, it got killed in appropriations, the funding for it. The second year I introduced it, I capped it for three years to increase the mental health capacity, because I figured, (the state had) a $100 billion surplus; the second time, we were expected to have a deficit. At that time, I don’t think we were quite sure of how much we were going to be in the deficit, but my thing was, if we’re spending billions of dollars every year on addressing homelessness, we should focus some of that funding specifically to the mental bed health capacity in the state of California.
So, obviously, my bill was not needed. It died in committees, per se, because the governor came back with his plan, but in the form of a bond, which voters barely passed this March. I also submitted a letter to request a legislative audit, with regards to, “OK, we’ve spent all of this money with regards to homelessness. How have we spent it, and what did we learn as far as what programs were the most effective in addressing the homelessness issue, right?” Because we knew, when it comes to homelessness, it’s multifaceted. There’re various issues that impact homelessness, so we have to break down all the different components of homelessness and study each one and see how we’re addressing each of those issues. I’m grateful for all of my committees, because they have given me a different perspective on each of the issues, on various spaces that address homelessness.
I brought forth some of the concerns I’ve observed with regards to what we’re missing (in) addressing homelessness, but legislatively, we submitted a letter in a bipartisan and bicameral way, meaning we had a Democrat; I was a Republican. We had a Democrat, a senator, a colleague of mine from up north; we had an assemblymember who was Republican, and we all came on board writing a letter requesting an audit as to how some of these cities had invested the funding for homelessness, and what programs were effective. Well, the report came back, and we’ll be happy to provide that for you if you’d like to see it. Some of the key findings, and we knew this going in, are that there were not many accountability measures required when the funding was given.
When you don’t have that level of accountability within these measures or within that funding, then data is not able to be acquired. And when you don’t have any data, then you can’t assess how that funding was spent, and whether or not it was effectively spent. So, moving forward, you know, and we’ve been advocating for this, especially me, I’m huge on accountability. I was part of that (until) they asked me to step down from the budget committee, as well as the budget one committee, which is educational funding within all those committees. My biggest thing, and the question that I continuously asked was, “OK, you folks are asking for funding at different levels, all addressing children who are, you know, unduplicated, meaning children that are English-language learners within the spectrum of the definition of impoverished or special needs (or) foster youth, right?” And as the funding was being requested, whether it’s elementary school, junior high, high school, college and in other areas in our society, my No. 1 question was, “Well, have we assessed whether or not these programs and these funding requests, in which we’re investing, are we assessing how effective they’ve been and whether or not we should continue funding them? Or should we redesign and look at what we’re doing, so we are effective because at some point, when do we catch up?
Or are we just expected all the way through to have the same outcomes, just meeting and meeting, right?” At some point, these kids should be able to catch up. My follow up question was, “Well, how long should programs be in place before we evaluate them?” And at that time, they didn’t have a requirement, or, like, a time expectation as to how long a program should be in place before they were evaluated. So, I posed that question, you know, and I’m glad I did, because they had not considered the effectiveness of a program or when to evaluate those programs. I’m happy to say that this past year, when we were looking at the educational funding for some of these programs for the first time—and this is my fourth year here—for the first time, the governor’s office came back into committee, and said, “You know, we’re allocating this funding for these programs, and we are asking that the programs be evaluated after three years.” So, the feedback is great.
I’ve been very effective in communicating with my fellow colleagues, with the governor’s office, the legislative analyst’s office, the finance office, and just communicating as to what we can do better to improve the system so that as we’re spending a lot of money in various programs, we’re actually looking for physical outcomes. So, that’s been my No. 1 priority when it comes to spending money in different areas, (like) education, homelessness. We just had an oversight hearing on grant funding for nonprofits. My No. 1 thing is, make sure that we have accountability measures within the allocation of funding. No. 2, the reporting process: We have to get that from all the different entities and agencies throughout the state, so we can effectively account for the money that we’re spending, ensuring that we’re getting what we’re expecting from the programs we’re implementing in our state, especially now that we are facing a very huge deficit. So those are the things that we’re looking into and will continue to do within my communities, getting to know all of them.
I’m a very hands-on legislator. I’ve held 45, 46 town halls in the course of almost two years, since being given the green light. (Given the opportunity), I would have begun the town halls (even sooner), going throughout all the different cities, because I know people are in survival mode. They’re very busy, working two, three, four jobs many times, having families that they have to raise. So, I try to be as readily available to my constituents, so they know what the state senator does for you. What can our state office do for you? And, (I’m) ensuring that my team, we’ve been very careful in hiring people who have a heart of service for community members, that they want to help people, and that their heart, humility, heart of service and compassion and empathy are there. I have an amazing current team that embraces the values that I want to see implemented within our community, and accountability. Every year, I’ve been reporting how many meetings I’ve attended, how many tours I’ve done, pieces of legislation—I’m all about accountability. If I’m going to expect that from our state agencies and our entities, you know, from anyone who we’re granting funding for, then, lo and behold, you should also expect to have that level of accountability from your fellow legislator, your senator, and I do that on an annual basis.
Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing are often two sides of the same coin. How do you plan to address these issues while still advocating for growth and development?
Local control is really important. Local representation is so important, because those are the community who that know and understand the needs, the wants and the capacity for their jurisdictions. This is where I think that states can be very overly burdensome when it comes to expectations and mandates toward our local community, because California is so diverse in its topography and its demographics and economy. That’s where we have to be very mindful and very respectful of those local jurisdictions. The Inland Empire is very unique in the sense that we still have a lot of untapped resources, a lot of land that’s still available, and so, when we look at areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, it’s very expensive.
And here’s the thing: When we look at affordability, and this is where my heart just absolutely melts for and feels for the average Californian who doesn’t have flexibility in income; they live on a fixed income, right? Our seniors, our communities with disabilities, our foster youth, our entry-level wage workers, all of these individuals don’t automatically get an increase in cost of living. And when we look at everything and how it goes up, inflation doesn’t just happen. It is the direct result of policy, of legislation, of mandates.
A lot of it is the impact that government has on different industries, and how they have to raise prices in order to have the revenue to meet the requirements that are imposed on them by our government. Many, at times, (the requirements are) very well intended, (but) probably not considering the goals or impact of what they’re desiring, and what that looks like in the real world, and for everyday Californians. That’s where I’m coming from, when I go and do my town halls and speak to people and see the concerns that they have about affordability. From a Realtor perspective, I’ve been a Realtor for over 20 years. I’ve seen the market fluctuate drastically when it comes to the cost of housing. And I am baffled by how much housing costs today. We have so many young professionals who cannot enter the market, unless they have the blessing of parents who can help them with the down payment for housing. How did all of that happen?
I’m very much a legislator who is asking, pleading with Californians to think about issues beyond what’s on the superficial level. I want people to think about issues in a way, likening it to an onion. Look at the issue that you’re concerned about, and then I want you to ask yourself, “Well, what caused that issue?” And I want you to ponder on that. I want you to peel that onion one more time and ask, “Well, what caused that particular issue?” And I want you to go all the way deep and peel that onion until you get to the core, until you can no longer find what the root problem is.
When it comes to the cost of housing in California, there are various factors, but one of the primary factors that I’ve seen impact the cost of housing in California, is that, depending on where we are, we don’t have enough supply. And when we do have (supply) or the process of having open land, (and) trying to develop those plans, then we’re faced with organizations that don’t want development in those areas, right? And it doesn’t matter if you are on the far right, or the far left, (or) people that don’t want development at all, or they’re trying to negotiate private neighborhoods agreements, or trying to negotiate a deal—(there is an) impact on the end product of each individual house.
So, when it comes to development, sometimes you’re dealing with groups that perhaps don’t want development happening in their areas, or you’re dealing with groups that want to negotiate labor agreements. A lot of these agreements come under non-disclosure agreements, right? So, we don’t know exactly what they’re asking for, but we know there’s something they want, because when development happens, there’s an increase of cost on each individual unit. And then you have government come in and say, “Well, we have groups (that) say, OK, in order to receive funding for affordable housing, we want to ensure that there’s either prevailing wages there, or that there are project labor agreements.” For me, it’s one of the biggest problems that I see in a lot of affordable housing in California, where we have these requirements, because we don’t have enough of those groups to build that type of housing in the state. What ends up happening is the cost of those projects increases quite significantly, or they don’t get built at all.
So, we’re seeing a trend right now which our legislators are pushing forward. OK, we might not require project labor agreements, but we might require prevailing wage, which I prefer, because it actually allows more groups (and) more developers to come in and build the actual housing in place and ensures that they’re getting at least a prevailing wage. When it comes to California in building, a lot of the issues that add cost beyond what the Legislature imposes on builders and the requirements that they pose on construction, it adds a lot of cost to individual parcels of land, which adds to the price of housing. Moving forward, we want all of these requirements that are green and environmentally friendly and green goals, but with that comes a price tag of an extra $10,000 here, an extra $15,000 there. At the core of it all, I think it’s important to begin the discussions about the importance of addressing CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. It’s funny, because the state, you know, kind of does exceptions for certain projects that they feel are important. But if the Legislature is able to do it for certain projects, it should be done for all development in the state. We should look at the system at the core, and see what we can do to update it, streamline it, make it more effective and efficient overall, but also without the negative financial impact on development.
Water and air quality are perennial problems in the region. How do you intend to tackle these problems that are inherent to the region?
Great question. So, I actually have supported quite a bit of funding that has to deal with what we can do to improve water. We just approved a bond (for) water and infrastructure and updating systems to ensure funding is available for those communities that need to mitigate factors that are not healthy. For instance, in my mountain communities, one of the lakes tested positive for PFAs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or “forever chemicals”). So, when it came to approving this bond for water infrastructure, I said, “Absolutely.” We have so many communities right now that don’t have the infrastructure (or) the funding for these new elements, like the one that we have in our lakes. They don’t have the technology to address it at the larger level, at the lake level. But if we could have some grant funding that would allow individual homeowners to have systems that filter that particular element out of the water as it comes into their homes, then let’s see what we can do to mitigate that.
As we move forward, we have to ensure that the state, if we’re going to implement measures—and this is the biggest concern that I’ve seen (as to) how it impacts at the local level—is that we have technology that can test for water impurities and air quality. Unfortunately, we don’t have the technology yet to meet the removal of many of these elements, or they don’t have the funding at the local water jurisdiction. There are different air contributors, (but) they don’t have the technology to mitigate those factors. So, we have to, one, help fund the mitigation factors or technology, or facilitate the grant funding. That’s really important, because what I’m seeing from local communities that are impacted by these findings is, one, we don’t have the funding for the technology. Or two, the technology doesn’t exist. That’s scary when one or the other, or both, don’t exist. This is (where) we have to work really closely with our communities and advocate for funding. And, as the technology gets better in testing and assessing, (we have to relay) that message to our community members. That’s what my community members in the mountains right now are facing. When it comes to grant funding or bonds, we have to be able to support those efforts, because overall, it’s always the local residents who are impacted by it, but they are also responsible for paying to mitigate those factors.
(Regarding air quality,) one of the components that we do have in the Inland Empire, is the mountain ranges. Where we’re located, much of the pollution that comes from the ports in L.A., which are the No. 1 polluters in the state. That pollution comes in and gets literally stuck in the basin of the valley, because of the mountains. There’s been a lot of focus on the semi (trucks) that work there, and warehouses that we have on the (Interstate) 10 corridor, which is the major corridor for freight and goods. But because of the equipment that we have to assess the air quality, which is becoming more refined with time and experience, that is allowing us to have very high, accurate readings about the air quality in those particular areas. As far as my mountain communities, well, at least with Lake Arrowhead having been tested for PFAs and having pretty high levels, we do have systems that could be bought for individual homes.
What are the defining accomplishments of your political career so far?
Oh my goodness. Professionally, I think I’ve had several, but it’s funny, because usually, I’m the kind of person that does something and just kind of puts it to the side, and I don’t even think about it. When my team or my staff lets people know (about) accomplishments, I’m like, ‘Oh, I forgot I did that.’ It’s a habit that I’ve had in my whole life. I don’t keep track of what I’ve accomplished, but I can tell you what I am grateful for, and that is bringing people together on common ground and facilitating conversation about ideas, rather than about vilifying people or parties, (but) building camaraderie and focusing on the level of governance and what that looks like. In my community, I am so grateful that I can collaborate with people across political spectrums, across demographics, with the utmost respect and level of decorum that I believe this office deserves, as well as what our children deserve to see.
We’re modeling the type of governance that I would like to see as a whole, and I’ve been able to gain that respect in Sacramento and from my locally elected (colleagues) and my constituents. They know I’m there to do the work, to advocate, to bring forth work that is helpful for my district as a whole. So I’m very, very proud of that, of those efforts that were my goal from the get-go, and why I decided to run for this particular seat, as well as, you know, having been able to bring funding into my district to help different organizations and entities give back and do their work within our community.
We’ve been able to bring in quite a bit of funding, even though I’m only one of, now, nine Republicans out of 40 senators. It’s important to note that I’ve been effective even though I’m the super, super minority. I always say to my Democrats, “I promise you, I’m a warm, fuzzy one, and however you feel about politics, Republicans or Democrats,” I said, “you need the Republicans, because we are your yellow canary.” We’re the ones bringing a different perspective into the issues that otherwise would not be spoken and talked about.
But you know, although we have to run with a label, and that allows you to know what our philosophy is about the role of government. Once we’re elected, I believe I have a fiduciary duty to represent all of my constituents, so I’ve had an open door to anyone and everyone. I don’t shy (away), and I’m not afraid to speak or meet with anyone and talk about issues, because I think that’s the most important part. And when it comes to my town halls, I’m huge on facilitating conversation and dialog about ideas. That’s been very important for resources, communication, ideas and bringing people together on common ground. I think that’s been some of my biggest accomplishments.
Legislatively, of course, I can’t take credit for the expansion of the mental-health bed capacity, but I can say that I brought forth a bill that was desperately needed, and I’m glad that the governor and my fellow colleagues saw the need. I can say, “Hey, I brought it to their attention.” I got unanimous, bipartisan support in the Senate when I brought it forth, and then the governor came in. I can be the neck that directs the head. I’m perfectly fine with that.
Also, when it came to addressing the issues of housing at the university and college level, I gave my perspective and was grateful to see that they also followed that lead. The concern I had was: Not all of our colleges provide student housing. So, the observation I made in committee was that when we expect our state educational system to increase capacity, that has an impact on the housing in the local communities. The way the state was proposing to mitigate the cost for housing for students was to provide vouchers. I said, “I have to object to that, because vouchers don’t increase the supply of housing. That doesn’t fix the problem.” As a Realtor, I’m thinking, “No, we have to build housing on our campuses if you’re expecting universities to grow.” (If you’re) asking for an increase in student enrollment, it should be the responsibility of the state to provide the funding to build housing on campuses so that we don’t negatively impact costs for those local communities. So, I’m grateful that I’ve been able to be effective in my role as a state senator, representing the 23rd District in Sacramento, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to bless and to serve with my colleagues.
What is your ideal night out in the Coachella Valley? Where are you going, and what are you doing?
We are outdoors people. We love to go either hiking, or my kids and my husband ride dirt bikes. I’ll do the quads. You have a lot of dirt trails out there that are great to actually go riding in. But I have to say, you folks (in the Coachella Valley) have wonderful restaurants—I mean, delicious restaurants that my husband and I like to go and explore. Now I have an excuse to actually go a little more often and explore your cuisine out here. So, it’s really exciting. You have great museums. During the day, we’ve been exploring the cultural heritage that you have; it has been wonderful. I haven’t gone to any of your concert venues yet, but I look forward to doing that moving forward.
I’m very excited to get to know the people a little deeper—you know, your nonprofits, your service organizations, because I know that those are the hearts of the people who have needs within your community members. I know that from my current district. That’s my next venture when I get back in September, is to ensure that I am connecting with all of those groups, as well as the people that are the movers and the shakers of the local community.
