VISTA — Mayor John Franklin gave his final State of the Community address to a room full of local leaders and community members on Monday at the Vista Civic Center, taking a look back at the city’s accomplishments over his 12-year tenure on the City Council.
Speaking at the Vista Civic Center, Franklin highlighted the city’s strong financial position, improvements in public safety, the opening of new businesses, recreation facilities and parks, and services for the homeless, foster youth, veterans, and seniors.
The State of the Community is hosted by the Vista Chamber of Commerce. Along with chamber leaders, representatives from the Vista Unified School District and San Diego Workforce Partnership also spoke at the event.
Franklin was first elected to the City Council in 2014 and has served as the mayor since 2022. He is seeking the San Diego County Board of Supervisors District 5 seat in the November election.
“Thank you to each and every one of you for giving me the honor to work with as your mayor, to serve you. I’ve enjoyed it more than anything I’ve done in my life,” Franklin said. “I’m looking forward to my last year serving you as your mayor, and I’m looking forward to hopefully serving you long into the future in other capacities.”
Franklin emphasized improvements in Vista’s fiscal position over the years, with the city’s emergency reserves growing from around $8.5 million in 2014 to $40.8 million in 2026. At the same time, the city employee pension trust fund has grown from $5 million to $25 million.
Refinancing of the city’s bonds has also resulted in an increased credit rating of AA from S&P Global, and the California Policy Center this month ranked the city of Vista fourth out of San Diego County’s 18 cities for overall fiscal health, behind Coronado, Del Mar, and Carlsbad.
In the 2025-26 fiscal year, the city is operating with a $180 million budget and has budgeted $183 million for 2026-27. The city has made a practice of budgeting conservatively and then using any budget surplus to fund council members’ additional priorities.
Vista most recently ended the fiscal year with a $10 million budget surplus.
“We plan to have a surplus every year, and then at the end of the year, the council gets to discuss ‘okay, how much surplus do we have, and what are our priorities,’” Franklin said. “Instead of frontloading those priorities, by putting those things at the end and putting fiscal responsibility up front, we have put Vista in a position far ahead of all the other cities in our county.”
Franklin also emphasized the city’s focus on public safety, noting that Vista has increased staffing and resources for fire and police personnel since 2014. Vista Fire Department personnel have increased from 85 to 117, and the Vista Sheriff’s Station has increased from 84 to 89 deputies.
The city has also added 16 new emergency vehicles for firefighters and paramedics, he said.
Within the realm of public safety, Franklin said Vista also continues to be a leader in addressing homelessness.
The city continues to operate its 48-bed Buena Creek Navigation Center, which opened in 2024, and the Santa Fe Senior Village, a permanent supportive housing facility for veterans and seniors. In August, the city opened the VisTAY House, a transitional housing facility for homeless youth ages 18 to 25.
The 12-bedroom ViSTAY House is located along Ascot Drive and operated by Urban Street Angels. The site serves young adults facing barriers to secure housing, such as former foster children and those with mental health diagnoses, substance use disorders, and former involvement with the justice system.
Franklin also said that Vista is one of the few cities in the state to establish a by-name list to track the basic information of every unhoused individual in Vista and the services they’ve received.
“We know every one of them by name, and we have documented all of our outreach. We wanted every service provider that came into contact with every person on our streets suffering from homelessness to know the backstory and to know what we’ve tried, what’s worked for this person, what’s failed,” Franklin said.
However, he noted that there is more work to do when it comes to assisting those with severe substance use disorders and behavioral health issues, stating that there needs to be more accountability for those who need help but refuse to accept it.
He also praised the work of the Vista Sheriff’s Department to remove harmful drugs from the community, preventing fatal overdoses in the process. In early 2025, the Vista Sheriff’s Department arrested 11 people in a lengthy narcotics operation targeting street-level drug dealers distributing methamphetamine and fentanyl.
In this case, drugs were being dealt directly to people in homeless encampments, Franklin said.
“We made a large number of arrests with those operations,” Franklin said.
He also highlighted the city’s focus on creating places for people to gather, with the addition of new parks over the last decade, including the Creek Trail, Linda Rhoades Community Center and Sports Field, Pala Vista Park, and Wíivay Park.
In the coming years, Vista is also planning to open three new parks, add new improvements at Brengle Terrace Park, and complete needed upgrades at the Wave Waterpark.
Since the opening of the Paseo Santa Fe Area in 2021, Vista has also continued to draw more people and businesses to its downtown, Franklin said. Last year, the city saw 300 new businesses open.
Various city staff and other elected officials also attended the State of the Community luncheon. Councilmember Katie Melendez made her own statement about the state of the community, donning a hand-decorated coat with sparkly letters that read “Keep Families Together,” a reference to undocumented families affected by immigration enforcement.
