REGION — Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey is expected to challenge Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer for the District 3 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in the 2024 general election.
The Republican mayor has not formally announced his campaign but has recently pulled papers and launched a new website, San Diego Comeback, last month.
At age 30, Bailey became the youngest-ever mayor of Coronado in 2016 after serving four years on the Coronado City Council. Last year, Bailey mulled a run for the U.S. House of Representatives against Scott Peters (D-CA) but withdrew due to redistricting, per media reports.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is also considering running for the District 3 seat in the 2024 election, according to recent reports.
In an exclusive interview with The Coast News regarding a possible run, Bailey said he would prioritize “common sense” approaches to various areas, including homelessness, public safety, housing, transportation, environment and fiscal responsibility.
“Residents and voters deserve a representative that shows up to work,” Bailey said. “In 10 years … I’ve never missed a vote, let alone a meeting. I take a lot of pride in that and you can count on I will never miss a county vote or meeting if elected.”
Bailey said another goal is to develop common-sense, nonpartisan policies to help the region become “America’s Finest” again, focusing on local control for zoning and housing regulations.
While housing is certainly a hot topic in California, arguably the most pressing issue in the region is homelessness.
Bailey pointed to how Coronado has the lowest homeless rate in the county because of two factors: a good-faith effort to connect people experiencing homelessness with services to get them back on their feet and proactive enforcement of quality-of-life laws.
According to Bailey, combining those two efforts has kept The Crown City clean and safe for residents and visitors.
Another significant issue is transportation and SANDAG’s $172 billion regional transportation plan, which has been debated since August 2020.
Many, including Bailey, have criticized the plan’s proposed road user charge, a per-mile fee for all motorists that would significantly impact lower- and moderate-income working residents. Supporters of the charge say it would push motorists off the road and into public transit, along with supplementing declining gas tax revenue.
“When you look at where the money is scheduled to go, it doesn’t benefit many residents in D3 or around the county,” Bailey said of the plan’s San Diego-centric focus. “For example, two-thirds of all the funds raised from these new taxes fees are scheduled to be spent on public transit, which currently moves fewer than 2% (of the population). That number continues to fall.”
According to Bailey, the region needs a realistic and unique transportation plan with the understanding that 98% of commuters travel or commute in personal vehicles. Bailey said the system also needs to address pothole repairs and freeway bottlenecks while modernizing roadway infrastructure for the fleet of clean and autonomous vehicles on the horizon.
“These three minor changes would benefit the vast majority of commuters and they don’t cost that much,” Bailey said.
Bailey said that each of the cities within District 3 — Coronado, San Diego, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas and Carlsbad — deserve independent governing authority rather than a regional “one-size-fits-all” approach to transportation and affordable housing. If elected, Bailey said he would first consult with municipal bodies for their support on projects before pushing them forward.
Regarding housing, prior to former Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s resignation, the Board of Supervisors began applying vehicle miles traveled in local planning and environmental review, which has slowed growth in the unincorporated areas and pushed housing to areas west of Interstate 5, Bailey said.
In 2019, the SANDAG board majority voted to increase the county’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment for this cycle by more than 40%, despite recent studies showing that all 19 cities in San Diego County — with the exception of Lemon Grove — have failed to meet their state-mandated housing requirements.
Another pressing issue for Bailey is the county’s budget and the board’s spending habits. For example, Bailey expressed concern over the county spending $5 million annually to provide undocumented immigrants with legal aid — a service that should be provided (and funded) by the federal government.
Bailey said the county is trying to be “too many things to too many people” and failing to focus on the fundamentals — public safety, infrastructure, transportation and housing. Gone are the days of a healthy general fund and reserves, eaten away by redundant programs, Bailey said.
“The long-term trajectory of the county makes you wonder if we’ll be able to get the basics of local government right,” Bailey said. “There is a saying that all politics is local. Now, we’re seeing more than ever that all politics is regional. We’re seeing the county having a larger and larger influence into quality-of-life issues that affect all of us. By every objective measure, whether it’s homelessness, crime, housing affordability or transportation, we’re seeing the metrics in San Diego County getting worse and worse.”
1 comment
Anyone but Terra Lawson-Remer.
Bailey looks like a good choice